It's easy to be afraid of taking a plunge, because, after all, plunging is dangerous. And the fear is a safe way to do nothing at all. Wading, on the other hand, gets under the radar. It gives you a chance to begin.
Karl Barth said it well: "We have to read the Bible in one hand. . . and the newspaper in the other. " Our faith should not cause us to escape this world but to engage it.