Deep Water: Lessons from Joseph Smith and a Croatian Free Diver

by Autumn Dickson

Context for this week: Joseph Smith and his companions were freed from prison by sympathizing guards during a transfer. Though they returned to their families, persecution rendered it necessary for Joseph to go into hiding. Some of what we read this week came through letters that Joseph had dictated with the will of the Lord.

In Section 127, there is a verse written by Joseph Smith that speaks of his ability to handle stressful situations. After repeatedly being placed in difficult circumstances, his ability to handle it grew tremendously.

Doctrine and Covenants 127:2 And as for the perils which I am called to pass through, they seem but a small thing to me…deep water is what I am wont to swim in. It all has become a second nature to me; and I feel, like Paul, to glory in tribulation; for to this day has the God of my fathers delivered me out of them all, and will deliver me from henceforth; for behold, and lo, I shall triumph over all my enemies, for the Lord God hath spoken it.

Deep water is what I am wont to swim in.

I feel like coming across this message was rather timely for me. At the time that I’m writing this post, I just read about a Croatian freediver named Vitomir Maričić. Maričić just set the world record for holding your breath, a whopping 29 minutes and 3 seconds. He beat the last world record by almost five minutes.

I researched what Maričić had to do in order to become this incredible freediver who could handle this kind of extreme duress. He obviously engaged in cardiovascular training, but it was not sufficient for this kind of world record. He also engaged in specifically training his diaphragm to take much slower, longer breaths. He stretched and performed breathing exercises in order to increase lung capacity. He worked with carbon dioxide tables in which he would hold his breath for a set amount of time and gradually decrease his rest intervals; for example, he would hold his breath for two minutes at a time while taking breaks that gradually shortened in between each two-minute period. He did the opposite with oxygen tables where the rest intervals were fixed, and the amount of time he would hold his breath would increase. He would walk while holding his breath to put extra stress on the body to acclimate. He literally worked to condition his spleen to release an increased number of oxygen-rich red blood cells.

He also worked mentally. At a certain point in holding your breath, your diaphragm starts to contract as a defense mechanism for the lack of oxygen. At about 20 minutes, Maričić felt these contractions but held the mental resolve to continue.

In order to prepare for the dive, he breathed pure oxygen for ten minutes. This can also cause problems, and he had to consciously work on building up his endurance for pure oxygen.

One of the main principles Maričić took advantage of was progressive overload where you continuously increase the stress you’re under to increase the amount of pressure you can handle. He did this under proper safety protocols and teams who could take care of him if something went dramatically wrong.

Deep water is what I am wont to swim in. Deep water is what Joseph Smith was accustomed to swimming in. It is one of our goals of mortality: to learn how to swim in deep water.

Why does it matter if we can swim in deep water?

Because that’s where Heavenly Father lives His life, in the deep end. He is fully engaged, completely immersed, surrounded by difficult circumstances that He doesn’t shy away from. Because of His willingness to enter into this state, He finds its opposite side of the coin: deep joy, contentment, and satisfaction in an eternal existence that has the potential to hold a lot of emptiness.

If we want to find that same kind of existence, an existence where we find meaning and purpose and joy in a never-ending lifetime, we have to be prepared to swim in deep water. You can’t get involved in loving imperfect others without consequent pain, but you can’t completely avoid relationships if you want joy. They come together.

Somehow, we have to develop the kind of fortitude where we can find joy while buried in deep water. Eternal life is not actually about waiting to get pulled out of the water; it’s about finding the resilience to be okay in the thick of it.

That’s difficult to find when the Lord allows us to perpetually stay in the shallow end.

There have been times in my life where I have found myself in the deep end, and I did not improve in my ability to find peace or joy. There have been times when I have simply panicked the entire time. Yet, there are other times when I have been able to school myself into being okay while being placed in a situation that’s uncomfortable.

Just like with Maričić, there are many methods that we can utilize to purposefully maximize our training rather than floundering and screaming the whole time and missing the entire point of the exercise. Let’s talk about one method today.

I taught swimming lessons growing up, and I’m not too shabby at it. As I taught my oldest daughter to swim, I would take her out into the deep end while holding her. I would count to 3 and dip her all the way under the water. I wasn’t holding her under. We were literally just dipping under and out. I made her do it 3 times every time we swam (which was nearly every day), and then she could be done and do whatever she wanted in the shallow end.

For the first week, she screamed bloody murder at me every time. I think I made the lifeguards rather uncomfortable. I definitely made the other patrons uncomfortable. But I knew that my daughter could do this, and I also knew that she would be a very happy person once she learned that going under the water wasn’t going to kill her.

The true turning point in this practice was when I asked a friend to take a video of her going underwater. She still screamed, but then I showed her the video. I made a big deal about the fact that she was so cool for being able to do that. I showed her what she was capable of.

She literally never screamed again. She didn’t love it immediately, but she didn’t scream anymore.

And then she did grow into what I knew she could be. She did grow into someone who had more opportunities for joy. I can’t keep the girl above the water anymore. Her siblings have followed right in after her, and no one is stressed or screaming about it except for me trying to keep an eye on three of my five young children, trying to determine who has been underwater too long.

One of the methods for taking full advantage of mortality is realizing who we are meant to be like. When you can catch a glimpse of what you’re meant to be, it makes the water worth it. And when something is worth it, it changes the game. It changes you. It is much harder to handle training and coaching when you don’t realize that there is a purpose in it.

I testify that you can swim in deep water. I testify that it’s worth training. I also testify that like Maričić, you have an extremely talented team that knows the progressive overload you need and can handle. There are angels standing around you to guide you. And, of course, you have the ultimate Lifeguard. The only thing that matters in that water is that you grow. He doesn’t care if you make mistakes. In the end, it won’t matter what happened to you because He can heal it. You just have to grow, and He will be there to fix everything.

Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR’s 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award.

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