Searching the Depths

“The seemingly un-extraordinary”

Searching the Depths

When one considers the phrase “Searching the Depths” lots of images may form.  One image may contain thoughts of a deep water submarine like the one that the U.S. Navy has been using to search for a missing Malaysian Airliner believed to have crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean earlier this year.   In its search, this drone submarine has gone deeper than it has ever gone before, 15,000 feet below the surface, to try to find the missing aircraft.  That’s something like 2.8 miles below the water’s surface.  But this isn’t the deepest a submarine has gone.

At 5:52 p.m. ET Sunday, 12 March 2012, James Cameron arrived at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, 35,756 feet (about 7 miles) deep.  He’s the only man to have done so solo and is only one of 3 people in the world to have ever done it.

He reached bottom after a 2-hour-and-36-minute descent.  When he made it, the National Geographic explorer and filmmaker typed out welcome words for the cheering support crew waiting at the surface: "All systems OK."  Then, he stayed and explored the trench for about 6 hours.  When he was finished, he jettisoned steel weights so he could shoot back up to the surface where he could celebrate with his friends and crew.

These friends were celebrating the achievement of the extraordinary.  A feat that almost all of us will never participate in.  But, what of the rest of us?

We go about our lives and relationships not in an unassuming way.  We go tend to go through life in an assuming way.  Most days nothing around us changes so we get to where we don’t really notice much of anything at all.  We paddle on the life’s surface.  This was the case for me until recently.

I had struggled with making a major decision over the past few months and finally got to the point where I had made a choice.  I felt pretty good about it until sat down with a friend and told him what I was planning to do.  His reaction and depth of feeling were a real surprise to me.

“I’m shocked!” He said.  “Why would you do that?”

We talked for a few moments more and then he said, “I can see that there is nothing I can do to change your mind.”

I thought that was the end of the conversation, but it wasn’t.  Within the next few hours he had rallied some other friends, we had in common, and they asked if I would meet with them the next day.  Of course I told them I would.

When we sat down together it become immediately obvious to me that I had misjudged the depth of friendship I had with these people.  I had been spending my time paddling on the surface or our friendship and had never really explored the true depth of what we shared together.  Now I was the one who was shocked!

It wasn’t only their caring behavior that shocked me.  It was how I had been their friend for many years and had taken the relationships for granted.  It was as if I was the richest man in the world and never realized or enjoyed the wealth with which I was blessed.

So, I began to explore the depths of the great friends that were surrounding me.  When I did, there was immediate buoyancy that filled my entire body.  My mood became lighter and I felt fulfilled.  “All systems OK.”  So, I decided to stay and explorer my friendships for a few hours.

No I know, that it isn’t good enough to skim the top of life’s water and see only what floats on the surface.  To see the whole grandeur and wonder life has to offer you and I need to explore the depths of our own immediate world.  We need to dive in and see what others don’t see or appreciate in our circumstances and friendships.  When we do, we’ll be able to celebrate our extraordinary life with those we’ve made the journey with. 

Why live on the surface or dive a mere 2.8 miles into our lives when we can be one of 3 people who have gone the whole 7 miles?