DYA Survival Guide

Sprinkle, Splash, or Dunk: How to Survive Your Swim in the Waters of Your Baptism

The Nowhere-Near-Complete Guide to Duke Youth Academy

Introduction

I always hated swimming lessons. As a kid, I remember hating the trip across town to the North Charlotte YMCA, the strange smell in the bathroom, and the inevitable departure of my mother for the bench at the far side of the pool. But what I really didn’t like was that first step, that first moment when me feet left the firm concrete and I jumped into the liquid cool of the water. I knew that the pool was only four feet deep, I knew that the swimming instructor would be there if anything happened, and I knew that my floaties would keep me from sinking, but I still didn’t like it. It was just too scary to be there in the water without anything under me except the unknown swirling depths. But after a few minutes of clinging to the side of the pool, I would usually get comfortable enough to paddle a little, and with a lot of persistent coaching by the swim teacher, I would be swimming laps by the end of the lesson.

You, my DYA brothers and sisters, are about to begin the biggest spiritual swimming lesson of your lives. As kids, we had to stay in the shallow end of the pool, and we could only begin to grasp the concept of God and what it meant to follow Him. As we got older, we could go a little farther, swim a little deeper, and understand a little more of what it meant to be a Christian. During the next two weeks, you will go farther and swim deeper than you ever have before, but even then you will have only broken the surface of the endless ocean that is the love, the very nature of God.

Like my childhood swimming lessons, DYA was sometimes uncomfortable and unnerving, but only because I was forced to think for myself, examine my own beliefs, and realize that, apart from Christ the solid rock, everything else is sinking sand. But once I took the plunge, I discovered I never wanted to go back to the shallow end of the Christian life. The two weeks I spent at DYA were some of the most mentally taxing, physically tiring, and emotionally draining of my life, but they were without a doubt, the best two weeks I have ever had. And by the end, I wept, as we all did, at the thought of leaving and returning to “the real world.”

Your time here at Duke will be special beyond any words that I can write, and the only way to really know that is to live it out. So live it out to the fullest. God has brought you here to give you a vision of what life, your life, can be. Take it all in, and then go out and make it happen.

Writing to the church at Ephesus, Paul prays that the believers there, “being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” And as I prepare my meager advice to you, my brothers and sisters, that is my prayer too.

I think my dear friend Tessa Muggeridge said it best when she gave her advice to new DYAers: Have an open mind, take lots of notes, tell yourself it’s okay to change, ask God to help you change, and just give up and follow the dress code.

After all, you may be swimming in the waters of your baptism, but you do have to keep your clothes on.

Andrew Phillips
DYA Alum ‘06

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The full survival guide is available for download here.