Are You a Lifeguard or a Pool Monitor?

   Imagine you see a pool where children are splashing, playing, and having fun. You smell sunscreen and chlorine. There is laughter all around. You lie down and just as you begin to relax you hear screams and splashing. You get up quickly and look at the pool. There is a child splashing in the deep end. The child is screaming when it comes up out of the water. And, when the child goes under the water, you see bubbles. You realize the child is drowning.

   Frantically you look around and locate the lifeguard. You run over to the lifeguard and ask the lifeguard why he isn’t helping the child. The lifeguard looks down at you and says “oh, I’m not a lifeguard I am just a pool monitor. I’m supposed to let a person who is drowning know that he or she is drowning.” The lifeguard looks down at the child and says “hey, you are drowning.”

   Your mouth drops and you cannot believe what you are hearing. You grab the life saver from the pool monitor and throw it to the child. You are hoping that she would have the sense to grab it and save her life.This situation is a metaphor. Obviously if you see someone drowning you are going to try and do whatever you can to save that person. But, if you see someone who does not know Christ and is going down the wrong path are you going to be willing to say to them “you are not saved?” That’s all well and good if you are willing to do that but you need to take another step too.

   The pool monitor just sat there and told the girl she was drowning but that was not enough. Christians can walk around looking at the world and say “you are not saved.” But, if we do not tell them how to be saved are we actually saving them? Are we following the great commission?

   In the story you throw the life saver to the child. Thus, you are telling the child how to save herself. At that point you hope that the child will grab onto the only thing that can save her. When witnessing to the lost we can tell them how to save themselves but then we just need to hop that they will choose to accept that salvation. That’s not where our job stops though.

   Let’s say that child decided to grab onto the life saver. Would you just walk away from that child after she grabbed that? No, you would make sure she was okay. You would find her parents and make sure they understood what happened. As Christians, after someone accepts Christ, we need to come alongside that person and help her in her walk with God. This may mean we stay in contact, make sure she is alright, answer questions, and help her find someone who she can trust to help her in her walk with God.

   Our job does not end when that person accepts Christ; in fact that is only the beginning. If we are willing to help that person accept Christ we should be willing to help that person in her walk with Christ too.

   So are you willing to save the lost? After those people accept Christ are you willing to come alongside them and help them in their walk with Christ?

   Romans 10:9, Mark 16:15-16, Hebrews 10:24-25