Weekday Devotion With Pastor Chris

     My sabbatical five years ago was one of the great highlights of my life.  With a grant from the Lily Foundation and help from some friends I was able fulfill a life-long dream; a cruise on a sailboat of our own.  Our adventure began in the British Virgin Islands where we were joined by our kids and one of their spouses.  That all by itself would have been an extraordinary gift, but that was just the beginning.  Afterwards, Bonnie and I picked up our new-to-us boat and began a cruise that would take us from the Outer Banks of North Carolina all the way up to Nova Scotia, and then back down to the Chesapeake Bay.

     Any great adventure, of course, is going to have its setbacks and surprises.  Ours was no exception.  The most significant came as we were making our way south back down from Nova Scotia and Maine.  We had just come through the Cape Cod Canal and were stopping at Onset to refuel.  As we approached the dock I put the engine into reverse to slow us down, and then found to my horror that it wouldn’t come back out.  We were stuck in reverse.  The dock-hands who had lined up to receive our lines watched as we started backing away.

     Well this was awkward.  I yelled out what had happened, but my immediate focus was on not hitting anything as we began backing through the crowded anchorage.  I would like to tell you that I was calm, collected, and thoroughly professional.  But no, that wasn’t me.  I was anxious and confused, unsure about how best to handle this situation.

     Thankfully, one of the guys on the dock jumped into a tender and came motoring out.  I turned off the engine, and we began to drift.  I assumed he would come up alongside but that’s not what he did at all.  He brought his bow into our stern and tossed us a couple of lines telling us to take one up mid-ship and to secure the other at the stern.  Then (if I remember correctly) he gave us a third line to attach to yet another cleat.  I couldn’t figure out what he was doing.  It made no sense.  But we did as instructed and what we soon realized was that from that position and with those lines, he had complete control of our thirty five foot, six ton sail boat.  He proceeded to expertly guide us to the dock.  I was impressed.

     The good news was that we were safely docked in a good marina.  The bad news was that our transmission was shot and it was going to take a week to replace it.

     Like that dock-hand in his tender, God doesn’t always move in the ways that we would expect.  What God asks of us can often take us by surprise: “what, you mean we are supposed to forgive those who have injured us and pray for those who have made our lives miserable?”  But like that dock-hand, God always gets it exactly right.  What a blessing it is, amid whatever crisis we might encounter, to find God coming up beside us and offering that help which will see us through.

“Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and shield.  Our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.  Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.” (Psalm 33:20-22)