Hello Sailor!

 

 

I travel well on the sea, for someone who spends 99.9% of their time on dry land. Although it does rain a lot where I live...

 

Twice I have been on really quite choppy waters, both times on the Bay of Biscay / North Atlantic sort of area. While I remember being unsteady on my feet and wondering how long it could possibly carry on for, I saw other people suffering a lot worse. There were people literally going a strange green colour, there was a lot of moaning and a distinct smell of sick in the toilets. And that was just the passengers! I imagine the crew weren't having the easiest day either - although possibly with less sickness involved.

 

Life isn't easy. Fact. We have words in our language for 'pain', 'grief', 'fear', 'tears', 'distress' - and these are everyday words. Everyday feelings. Hopefully not for each of us personally, every day - but for someone, somewhere, everyday.

 

I have navigated through some tough seas in my life. The likes of which I hope never to see again. I have been to places in my heart, and in real life, that I wished didn't exist for myself or for others. I have felt that at times, I was clinging to the very wreckage as the storms carried on. When I felt that it should stop. Now. Really. Actually, please God make it stop. But there was no respite and I wasn't learning to be much of a sailor while I had nothing to sail with.

 

Eventually however, those seas calmed. And for a really bad season, were replaced by new storms which threw up more bad times. I felt no better equiped to go through those storms, than ones I had previously.

 

After some years, life and my 'seas' calmed down. Finally. But I was battered. Destroyed. Not fit for purpose any more. Life carried on regardless. I repaired what I could. Life took me on more journeys.

 

That saying is true. Now in stormy seas now I am a better sailor. I prepare for those storms rather than face them vulnerable and exposed. I watch the forecast. I make sure I have a good crew around me. That there are supplies on board. Lifeboats ready to go.

 

Did God cause those storms? Did I not hear him in those times? I know that I searched to know something of God during those storms. Something, anything. Sometimes the answers were very loud. Visionary. Other times I heard only silence.

 

Those who go down to the sea in ships,
Who do business on great waters;
They have seen the works of the Lord,
And His wonders in the deep.
For He spoke and raised up a stormy wind,
Which lifted up the waves of the sea.
They rose up to the heavens, they went down to the depths;
Their soul melted away in their misery.
They reeled and staggered like a drunken man,
And were at their wits’ end.
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
And He brought them out of their distresses.
He caused the storm to be still,
So that the waves of the sea were hushed.
Then they were glad because they were quiet,
So He guided them to their desired haven.
Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness,

 

O Lord God of hosts, who is like You, O mighty lord?
Your faithfulness also surrounds You.
You rule the swelling of the sea;
When its waves rise, You still them.

There were those who dwelt in darkness and in the shadow of death,
Prisoners in misery and chains,
Because they had rebelled against the words of God
And spurned the counsel of the Most High.
Therefore He humbled their heart with labor;
They stumbled and there was none to help.
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble;
He saved them out of their distresses.
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death
And broke their bands apart.Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness,
And for His wonders to the sons of men!

 

A Psalm mash up for the Jesus geeks (Psalm 89 & 107)

 

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