Solid Ground

Boating and I do not agree!

My last two experiences in boats have been disastrous.

The seal-watching experience I went on with two of my children began pleasantly enough, and I sat up near the front of the boat enjoying the calm water and blue sky as we sailed slowly through the bay. 

Then we hit the open water.

The boat began riding skywards up one side of the wave, before suddenly plunging over the other side like we were on the Big Dipper at Luna Park. Wave after huge wave. My stomach seemed to be doing cartwheels. The spray had me soaked. I managed to lurch my way from the bow of the boat back inside the cabin, where all I could do was sit on the floor and try to hold the contents of my stomach in, while my kids pointed and laughed at me. 

So I’m not sure what possessed me to say yes to a fishing trip a few months later. 

The story was similar. We departed from the jetty in the cove and all was pleasant, until we passed through the heads and into the ocean waters. We started rocking and rolling, left to right, up and down. I could feel myself turning green, and the captain must have seen it too. He had some words of advice that made a big difference: “"Look at the horizon." he said "Look back where we've come from and fix your eyes on the solid ground." He was suggesting that a cure for sea sickness was to focus on something fixed, something that wasn’t moving. Solid ground.

I tried it, and it worked, mostly. I still felt pretty queasy, but it definitely made a difference. I was still very relieved though when the captain decided to head back to calmer waters.

There can be times in life when we feel like we’re getting knocked from pillar to post. When it feels like we’re riding a rollercoaster, or being battered from every side. And I reckon the advice for seasickness also helps us get through the storms of life.

Focus on something solid. Something that doesn’t move. 

When the going gets rough in my life, my focus is firmly on Jesus. That’s my solid ground. He gives me an anchor point, a strength. I know that no matter what comes against me, Jesus and his love and his power will get me through it. I can look back at where I’ve come from, and how I have overcome obstacles in the past with some divine assistance, and it gives me confidence and assuredness for the future.

Jesus told a story about a man who built a house on sand and saw it get demolished in a storm, while another built a house on rock which survived intact. Jesus said that if we build our lives on Him, it’s like building on solid rock.

So when life gets stormy, if you fix your eyes on the teaching and promises of Jesus, you’ll find yourself holding it together through the roughest of seas that life can 'throw up'.

  
www.salvationarmy.org.au/mornington

Always and Never

Exaggeration. We’re all prone to do a bit of exaggerating from time to time. I find kids especially good at it.

I overheard a conversation recently between two kids where the words ‘always’ popped up quite a few times, as well as the word ‘never’.

“I would never do that.”

“She always does that.”

Obvious exaggeration going on.

On reflection, "always" and "never" are some of the most dangerous words to use carelessly. They almost beg people to ask, "Really? You’ve always done it correctly? You really mean you have never said that? Never, ever?”

As a writer, I’m pretty careful to avoid using them, replacing them with ‘usually’ or ‘often’ or ‘rarely’.

Yet I do love the words always and never. The alternatives seem less definitive, almost watery. Always and never hold so much optimism, or confidence. Like ‘I could always be happy’. Or ‘I could never fail’.

But sadly these words don’t live up to their promise – it’s pretty rare to find a true always or a true never.

Yet I can declare that I have found and proved one of those rarities in some of the final words of Jesus, according to Matthew’s Gospel.

Bidding farewell to his disciples, he left them with a promise; a promise not just for them but for Jesus-followers throughout the centuries. He said, “I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.” Implying that even though he was going in bodily form, his Spirit would be with them, and with us, always.

It was a definite ‘always’!

Further on in the Bible, in a letter to the Hebrews, the author Paul reminds them that God had made a promise: ‘I will never leave you. I will never abandon you’.

A great promise. An awesome ‘never’!

So these always and nevers should give us a good measure of confidence. We can know that whatever life is throwing at us, whether it is hard or sad or tiring or frightening, that Jesus is always with us.

And that no matter how hopeless the future may seem, or how crooked and rocky the road ahead looks, we can take comfort, strength & courage from the fact that God has promised to never leave us.

I can think of one more always and never, perhaps the best always and never of all. To do with heaven. Where the Bible tells us that we will always be in God’s very presence, and we will never be sad or unwell or distressed.

Now that’s an always and a never to look forward to.

 


www.salvationarmy.org.au/mornington