One of my all-time favourite things in life is to take a dip in the surf.

There are different ways you can do this. The easiest and quickest way is just roll up your jeans and wade around in the shallows. You can jump over a few tiddly waves and dig your toes into the sand. It's pleasant and reasonably refreshing and you don't have to do too much.

Or you can put on your swimmers and go right in with the bigger waves. That's a lot more exciting and invigorating. Standing up to your waist or chest in the water is a wonderful experience.

The best sort of dip for me though is to plunge headfirst into the surf and allow myself to be completely immersed in the deep water. To go out where I can't feel the bottom and where I have to swim is amazingly freeing. Afterwards I feel wholly refreshed and alive.

Today while I was reading Philippians 1:9-10, I stumbled across the idea of love abounding with depth of insight.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ...

When our spiritual insight is shallow, we are happy to wade around. We love a little, but we're not overtaken by that love. It's not a life-changing love.

When our spiritual insight is deep, we have to swim! Depth of insight requires more from us, but it gives much more as well. The love that will abound from depth of insight will be a love that is amazingly freeing. And having experienced it, we will be more wholly refreshed and alive.