Anchored

I actually wrote this post about a month ago while I was still on my ship with the Navy.

I was sanding the paint off of knee knockers today, and the ship was rocking, and I got to thinking. A lot of times, our lives are like ships. I think this metaphor applies better for Christians. Because when ships are in port, they’re safe. There is no rocky motion, no real chance they can over turn. This is like a Sunday in church for Christians. You are all prayed up, you just heard a sermon, and things are good. It seems as if nothing can shake you.

But ships can’t stay in port forever. They are made to go out and cross oceans. Christians aren’t supposed to just sit in church for forever either. They are supposed to go out and spread the word.

So a ship leaves port, and pulls out to sea. At first, there are a couple of waves, but nothing it can’t handle. It gets a little further away and more waves come, a little taller and a little quicker this time. Then the more you move out, the more the ship rock until the next thing you know, it is in the middle of a storm just rockin and rollin. For Christians, the same thing happens. They leave church on Sunday and challenges come, but they got it, it’s the easy stuff. But as the week goes on, more and more challenges come and sooner than later, they feel as if they are in a storm and over their head.

What happens now? What keeps that ship from flipping over? What keeps the Christian from drowning and throwing in the towel? When life throws everything at you, and you feel as if your grip on everything is floating away, what keeps you anchored?

Anchored. What a perfect word. So many times Christians like to remember when Jesus to the storm “Peace, be still”. So much so, that it is often forgotten that Christians are supposed to have storms! But, in knowing this, there is also the assurance that God is here to anchor us when times get rough.

Do you know what an anchor does? An anchor insures that the ship won’t move too far from where it is supposed to be so that it won’t flip over or sink. In times of rough seas, the anchor is sometimes used to keep a ship in place when it can’t come into port.

In the lives of Christians, God keeps them anchored. It doesn’t mean that you won’t go through the storm, but it does mean that while everything is going on around you, you don’t go under. You might stay and have to go through the storm, but you are supposed to. It teaches you something, and later on, you might be able to pass it on to someone else so that they might have encouragement while weathering the storm.

I guess the lesson here is to be properly anchored in Jesus Christ. To keep yourself afloat in the sea of life, you have to be properly anchored. There is no way around it.