New Blog by Rocky - Uncharted Waters

I recently wrote my “Sailboat Letter” for my couples Journey Group so that I will continue in the Journey myself.  I thought that maybe you would like to know my thoughts right now, as I process our life at this current time.  Maybe it will help you.  I pray that it does.

Uncharted Waters

My Captain:

As one of Your older sailors, I have the benefit of having sailed with You many years.  You’ve taught me well, and the best has been to release the wheel to You and to allow You teach me without my interference.  I’ve sailed enough seas without You to understand that I cannot know the conditions ahead, and I need the Supreme Navigator to show me what I don’t see, and to take me where I deep down long for but didn’t know how to get there.  Sure, I’ve been able to see more because of Your teachings, and this insight has helped me avoid some terrible consequences that come from plotting a foolish course toward the shallows that will wreck my ship.  There is a degree of predictability with the wisdom of Your word and its council guiding me, until I face something that I could not see, nor have the experience to navigate around.  Then, I must slow down and listen carefully to You, for it is then that You have my best attention.  I’m in such a place now.

I feel that I’m sailing in uncharted waters.  Everything looks Ok.  The wind is steady, the day is fair, and the waves are manageable.  It has all the outside appearances that all is well, and nothing to be concerned about.  But within me, I feel that something is coming that I’ve not faced before.  There seems to be a combination of dread but as well relief, insecurity around me, but deep security within me, a battle with a storm that must be fought, but one that will be won.  My Captain, I’ve not been here with You before, and it comforts me that You are beside me with what I must face.

Some people who do not know You will say, “If your Captain is such a good navigator, why would He not direct you away from the danger that He leads you into?”  They don’t understand that You don’t take your sailors out of their storms.  You empower them with Your help to overcome them.  You grow our faith and confidence in You through this process, and You make us more than conquerors to face other storms.  Then there’s the dreaded doldrums that all sailors want to avoid.  Even though I’ve tried my best to keep Your wind in my sails and to avoid them, I think that You’ve sometime led me into them. “Why would You do this?” the skeptic asks.  I’ve asked this as well, for it is a hot, windless, and lifeless place to be.  But I’ve also found You there teaching me something that I didn’t know, and the windless time made me attentive in such a way that I couldn’t listen to You otherwise.  It appears to me that You never lose an opportunity to teach us something no matter where we are, if Your sailor will seek You and listen to You.  I seek You now and listen to You.

My Lord Captain, the skies ahead are troubled.  Darkness falls on us.  A turbulence below in the water pulls at my ship, while your wind drives me away from it.  I’m in a battle with a new sea where evil lurks, and death awaits.  This sea is a culture of unrest and anger.  It fights with itself, being constantly agitated, and no one wins.  Something has happened that has turned Your beautiful creation into a cesspool of despair.  I see many people treading water, trying to keep their heads above it.  But eventually they slip beneath the surface of the waves, and another victim is claimed by the evil that exists in those dark waters below.  Who will save them?  Who will reach out a hand to them and show them the way out of their demise?

“What it that You say. My Captain?  You’ve taken me into these troubled waters to help them?”  It is true.  I would never choose to go to this place if I could avoid it.  But You did the same for me, and countless other victims that You rescued.  You left Your home in glory to implement the greatest rescue effort the world has ever known, and you want me to play my part in it.  You want all Your sailors to reach down and to show these victims Your rescue plan for them as we sail our ships to places that You take us.  Now I see it.  Now I have the answer.  You’ve trained me and now You have led me to this place to play my part, and to fulfill my purpose.  This has always been Your design.

Yes, I am indeed in uncharted waters.  I’ve not been in this place before.  It is not part of history and especially my history.  The fact is, I think mankind has never seen evil so unleashed as it is now, as it prowls below the surface.  But You’ve been here before.  You’ve sailed these waters before.  You fought our battles for us.  You won.  You won it for us all, and our rescue is secure.  Therefore, I sail these waters with You and claim another soul for Your kingdom.  I know not where it leads, but I know wherever I go, You are there.  This comforts me.  You are my Captain, and I put my trust in You.

“Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

If I take the wings of the morning

and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light about me be night,”

even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is bright as the day,

for darkness is as light with you.”  Psalms 139:7-12 (ESV)