By Dr. John E. Morgan

Pastor - Collinsville Baptist Church

The problem came because I could swim.

It was August. I was at RA Camp at Camp Linden in Tennessee. (RAs are Baptist Boy Scouts.)  I was eleven. 300 preteen boys. I was really having a good time.

It got better. We had swim time for an hour. There was no pool. The camp was on the banks of the mighty Buffalo River. Swimming was in river. My group of 75 made its way down the steep bank to the riverside. The swimming area was formed by ropes and a dock. On the other side of the rope there was deep water.

The Buffalo River was and still is a wild river. It looked plenty big to our group of boys. The counselors got us all together to give us our safety talk.

We were told that we would be using the Buddy System. Each boy needed to choose a buddy. Several times during the hour, a whistle would blow. Each boy would have to the count of ten to get to their buddy. Grab his hand and hold it up. The penalty for not being with your partner in that time was to sit on the bank for the rest of the swim period.

I did not know anybody, but I had met one boy at lunch and in the dorm. I cannot remember his name, so I will just call him Friend. He was glad to be my Buddy.

Those of us who could swim had to prove it. About twenty of us swam from the dock to the shore. That meant we were allowed to go to the end of the dock and dive into the main body of the river. ¾ of the way across the river there was a small island. Swimmers were allowed to swim to the island and no further – not to the other bank.

I am sure you think that you know what happened, but I thought I had it all figured out. I could swim fast enough to get back from the middle of the river and get to Friend wherever he was.

I loved swimming in the river, fighting the current, feeling the cool water.  Friend loved playing on the shore.  Playing in the sand. Splashing in the water at the shore. The whistle blew, I swam hard and my buddy and I were holding our hands up by the count of seven or eight.

Until the third whistle. When I was standing on the back of the island. I jumped in, swam hard and got to Friend.  Too late. We spent the next twenty minutes sitting on the shore. This was fine with Friend. Not with me. I was miserable.

The next day, Friend wanted to be my Buddy again. I told him I already had another Buddy. A swimmer. Friend found somebody else that could not swim. And that’s how we did it the rest of the week. Friend was a friend. But he loved the shore. And I loved the river.

One year later at Camp Linden I walked down the aisle and became a Christian.  Got baptized when I got back home. Became a new creation, a new person. That changed everything.

You may know a lot of things about me.  But the most important thing about me is that I am a Christian. Everything else about me comes from that. It is hard for people who are not Christians to understand that.

Paul told Christians not to be “unequally yoked with unbelievers”. Unbelievers have different goals for their lives. Their morals and ethics from different sources.

I see these differences often in marriages.  A Christian to a non-Christian. Pulled in different directions every Sunday morning. Pulled in different directions about their children. Their money. Their time. And what is true for marriage is often true for other life commitments.

Christians are to be friends with and love all people. But we should never forget. Friend loved the shore. I loved the river. The non-Christian loves the world. The Christian loves Jesus and the Kingdom of God. It makes for very difficult Buddy Checks.

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness.

II Corinthians 6:14