Jesus And The Art Of Scuba Diving – Jamie Robbins

The sun is setting, but there is still plenty of light on the dive deck. I sit with my three students in the galley area, deciding what I should or should not tell them about our night dive. If you’re sane, the idea of submerging yourself into inky black water at night is a bit unnerving. I’m not sure of the exact number, but I’ve done dozens of night dives. Even so, there is still a bit of hesitation before I jump off a boat at night—nothing I admit openly to my students.

They don’t need to know what I’m feeling right before jumping in…they have enough on their minds already. “I thought you said we’d do a few more advanced dives before the night dive?” Mark asks me. “I did, but changing conditions can alter the plans,” I reply. “The captain said the conditions may get worse, so he couldn’t guarantee any night dives after tonight.” Mark appears satisfied by my answer, but still nervous about the idea of a night dive. “It can be a bit disorienting when you first jump off a dive boat at night,” I say to Mark, Olivia, and Jason.

“But you’ll get used to it pretty quick.” How far do I want to get into the primal fear of darkness most humans carry deep within them? We are naturally creatures of the day and not well equipped to function at night in the wild without technological help. I’ve explained this to students in the past with mixed results. For some, a description of what they are about to experience helps them prepare…for others, it adds to their growing anxiety about committing to the dive.

I split the difference with this little group and give some explanation without going into too much detail. I also decide not to tell them the story of the harbor seal in California’s Monterey Bay. I was leading a group of advanced students there one evening. We were doing a relaxed shore dive near the breakwater jetty at San Carlos Beach, a popular training spot. The conditions were calm, and it was a beautiful night with a full moon.

As a scuba instructor I have the opportunity to see fear changed to courage, faintheartedness converted into accomplishment, timidity transformed into confidence, and anticipation turned into a passion. As a scuba instructor I can open hearts and minds to the hidden beauty of nature’s creation and our obligation to protect it, foster self-esteem in another person, teach the value of character and integrity, and transform another human being and change a life for the better and forever. — Professional Association of Diving Instructor’s (PADI) creed OceanofPDF.com Foreword When Jamie honored me with an invitation to write this foreword, I thought it was because I’m passionate about Jesus and because I’m passionate about diving, with a career in the latter.

Having had a chance to read early drafts of Jesus and the Art of Scuba Diving, that made sense. Both diving and Christianity transform you in positive but different ways. In the broad view, they are disconnected. True, some people and groups dive together because they also worship together, but obviously, diving doesn’t require faith in Christ. Diving is not tied to any religion.

The Professional Association of Diving Instructors—PADI, the world’s dominant diver training organization, where I have worked for almost forty years—is silent and neutral regarding faith. This is appropriate considering that annually, PADI certifies hundreds of thousands of divers from virtually every belief, culture, and country. So, like everything I do, my walk with Christ influences my diving. But I never saw it the other way around, with diving significantly shaping my life as a Christian. Until I read Jesus and the Art of Scuba Diving.

What hits hard in this novel is the transformation one experiences as both a follower of Christ and a diver. It has its own kind of transformation. The story exemplifies that Jesus amazingly transforms us into something greater than the sum of the parts we give him to work with—if we let him. This story is not an easy read. Don’t get me wrong, it’s interesting and reads quickly, but much of it is based on unimaginably difficult events in Jamie’s real life.

His characters ask frank, uncomfortable faith-related questions. They dialog in ways that make us squirm; if we’re honest, they demand answers.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 686e73b5ef028cf6
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 3,519,997 bytes (3.357 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 193
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 299.96 minutes
• Total Words: 59,992
• Total Characters: 324,257
• Average Words per Page: 310.84
• Average Characters per Page: 1680.09

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