I LOVE taking my daughter to “Aqua Tots” at Lords Meadow pool.

The lifeguard tips a basket of toys into the pool, and as the balls, frogs, octopuses and boats disperse, little children scoop them up, then proudly show-off their collection.

My daughter seems to enjoy this, but it does make it impossible for her to splash her limbs and develop movements that will one day turn into swimming.

As it stands, she has no idea what she might one day accomplish in the water. She could get her 800m badge, somersault from a diving board, or save someone from drowning.

But until she lets go of these cheap plastic toys, she won’t even doggy-paddle.

One day of course she will let go. One day, she’ll swim. But that’s not why I’m writing this.

I’m writing this because I wonder if us adults ever truly outgrow this behaviour. Or do we just clutch onto bigger things that hold us back from more important adventures?

We’re all born to keep growing – not physically, but spiritually.

David Bowie knew this when he said ageing is “an extraordinary process whereby you become the person you always should have been”.

The apostle Paul knew it too. He said we’re created "to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Over time, if we pay attention, I believe we start to figure out what these good works are.

But like the aqua tots, often we grip onto things that stop us doing this.

Some grip onto financial success, as the monk Thomas Merton knew: “we may spend our whole life climbing the ladder of success, only to find when we get to the top that it’s leaning against the wrong wall”.

Some grip onto a fear of what others think, so they never leave their comfort zone or take risks. And some clutch easy answers to difficult questions that only serve to narrow their view of the world.

So how can we let go of such things?

Our culture doesn’t always offer much guidance. Authority figures often repeat the lie that money is the best measure of success.

Advertisers promise to sell us the approval of others that we so crave. And endless politicians, influencers and (let’s face it) theologians have their own far-too-simple answers to difficult questions.

Unlike all of these, Jesus asks us to let go of this stuff.

This is one reason I find him so compelling. And in doing so he has the audacity to offer us “rest for our souls”, for – he says – “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”.

A church community like ours is at its core a group of flawed people trying to understand – and live out – words like these.

We often get it wrong, but over time, we’re trying to let go of what holds us back, and get into the deeper water to which Jesus seems to call us.

If ever you’d like to join us on this journey, we’d welcome the companionship.

Jake Lloyd

Crediton Congregational Church