September 2 | Moments Almanac | Crossings

Two people, centuries apart. They went back into deep water they had every reason to fear. One was a Welsh preacher sent by John Wesley across 3,000 miles of Atlantic to a country that didn't want bishops, and the other was a 64-year-old woman standing on a beach in Havana, about to enter shark and jellyfish infested water for the fifth time in 35 years. Thomas Koch's mission would require 18 Atlantic crossings and eventually cost him his life. Diana Naed would fail four times before the fifth attempt finally landed. But on September 2nd, separated by 229 years, both went back into the water. Thomas Coke was born in Wales in 1747, studied at Oxford, and was ordained in the Church of England. After meeting John Wesley, he embraced the growing Methodist movement, and quickly became one of Wesley's most trusted leaders. Then the American Revolution created a problem. Methodist societies in the newly independent United States needed ordained leaders, but the Church of England wasn't going to provide them. So Wesley did something extraordinary. On september second, seventeen eighty-four, in Bristol, Wesley laid his hands on Coke and set him apart as a superintendent for the Methodists in America. Wesley's brother Charles was furious, but Coke sailed. That December he helped preside the Christmas Conference in Baltimore, where American Methodism formerly organized as the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Coke kept crossing. He made eighteen Atlantic voyages, helped establish Methodist missionary work in the West Indies and late in life. He turned his attention toward India. In eighteen fourteen, at sixty six, Coke boarded a ship for that final mission. He died at sea before reaching land, an old man still crossing. More than a century later, Diana Niad had more than a century later Diana Niad had her own unfinished stretch of water. In nineteen seventy eight, at twenty eight, she attempted to swim roughly one hundred and ten miles from Havana to Key West. After forty-two hours, dangerous currents forced her out. The crossing remained unfinished for more than three decades. She tried again in 2011 and twice in 2012. Currents, jellyfish stings, storms, and physical exhaustion stopped her every time. Then on August 31st, 2013, at 64, Nyad entered the water at Havana for a fifth attempt. For nearly 53 hours she swam through open ocean without a shark cage, supported by a team tracking currents and protecting her through exhaustion and sickness. On September 2nd, she staggered on to Smathers Beach in Key West. Thirty-five years after her first attempt, she had crossed. So there you have it, two people, two centuries, two very different callings. And a reminder that faithfulness doesn't always mean getting there the first time. Sometimes faithfulness looks like getting back in the water. Galatians 6 9 says, Let us not become weary in well doing, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Coke kept crossing. Niad kept swimming. And maybe the water in front of you isn't telling you to quit. Maybe it's simply asking whether you're willing to go at it again. And that's Moments Almanac for September 2nd. I hope you'll join me tomorrow. Until then, take heart. Notice the scattered moments and share the grace.