Trapped in the Middle of the Ocean -- Third in the Series of Cruise Devotions

"I could never go on a cruise," a friend of mine said the other day as we discussed my recent 27th anniversary cruise. "There's just something about being stuck out in the middle of the ocean, unable to get back to land whenever you want to that makes me feel, well . . . vulnerable," she concluded.

I understand exactly how she feels. 

I shared her feelings as our ship pulled away from the dock on that first day, and I watched the skyline of Charleston get smaller and smaller until it disappeared completely. Although our ship had seemed enormous when we boarded, it was dwarfed by the miles of empty ocean that soon surrounded it. Gazing at the lifeboats strung like wooden beads around the ship caused a tiny flutter of fear to dance in my middle as I pondered the "what ifs."

Other experiences over the course of my lifetime have fed that butterfly of fear:

Taking a mission trip to another country.
Sending a child off to college.
Signing consent forms for surgery.
Helping my daughter move to one of the most dangerous cities in the country.
Making a will.

These experiences and others like them cause us to realize a truth we try not to think about -- we are vulnerable.

The apostle Paul felt that same vulnerability. As he said goodbye to loved ones and friends, he said, "I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there." He recognized, contrary to what William Henley suggests in his poem, "Invictus," that we are not masters of our own fates, nor captains of our own souls.

On the contrary, we owe the very breath in our bodies and the life in our souls to God's great love and care. Jeremiah the prophet understood this when  he penned Lamentations 3:22. He said it is "because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail."

It is also on the basis of God's love and sovereign control over the events of our lives that we can rest secure. Corrie Ten Boom said this, "In the center of a hurricane there is absolute peace and quiet. There is no safer place than in the center of the will of God." 

This reminds me that I am safer in the center of God's will in the deepest jungles of Africa than outside God's will in my own home. Safety is not in a place. Safety is in a person. And as Corrie said, safety is not always the absence of difficulty, but the presence of God.

Paul knew this. Listen to his poignant words of farewell to friends he knew he would never see again on this side of eternity. 

"And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me."

"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace" (Acts 20:22-24).  

Is God calling you today out of your place of apparent safety and into the center of His will, risky though that may appear to be? If His calling is sure, you are safe to follow Him. 

 "Without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him" (Heb. 11:6).

You can trust Him. 


"By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God" (Heb. 11:8-10).

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Reflections from the ER -- Mother's Day Thoughts on God's Mercy

"It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness."  (Lamentations 3:22-23)

It was the phone call that begins every parent's nightmare. 

"There's been an accident."

My daughter and her friends had left the house on a simple errand.  It was Mother's Day weekend.  A short time later the call came. 

As my husband and I rushed to the accident scene, all I could think was, I want to hold my daughter.  I want to see that she is all right.  I want to look into her eyes and the eyes of her friends and know that they are alive.

It was only God's mercy and biblical parenting that spared my daughter and her friends from serious injury.  What could have been a nightmare of magnitude proportions ended with a concussion, minor injuries and two smashed cars.

I had to pause and pray before I included the words "biblical parenting" in the same sentence with "God's mercy" in the paragraph above.  I feared that it might be sacreligious to include human effort in the same sentence with divine grace.  In the end, I left it there because biblical parenting and God's mercy truly are one and the same.  I know that it is only through God's mercy that we are able to parent biblically. Let me explain.

When I was a toddler, back in the days when car seats didn't exist and seatbelt use was optional, my parents and I were involved in an accident.  Sitting in the back seat unrestrained, I tumbled to the floorboard when the collision occurred.  Other than a few minor bruises and a terrible scare, I was fine. 

My father, however, was not.  He carried the horror of what could have happened to me with him for a long time.  The result was that he began enforcing seatbelt use for our family.  Typically a pushover, Dad's commitment to seatbelt use was ironclad.  The car did not move from the driveway until everyone was secured.  As children, we hated the new rule.  We whined.  We cried.  We cajoled.  We negotiated.  Sometimes we threw tantrums, but Dad was steadfast. 

Fast forward 18 years.  It was the night of the military ball, and I was a senior in high school.  As my escort and I prepared to leave, I did what I had been trained to do -- fasten my seatbelt.  I didn't think about the fact that it might wrinkle my gown, I just fastened by seatbelt.  Eighteen years of Dad's consistent parenting kicked in, and I did what he had trained me to do -- buckle my seatbelt.

That night could have ended in disaster too.  On the way to the ball, the young man with whom I was riding made an error in judgement, and we crashed into the back of a stopped car going 50 miles an hour.  Other than bruises from our seatbelts, he and I were fine.

Twenty-eight years later, my daughter and her friends were saved from serious injury because of my father's training.  The seatbelt lesson he had ingrained in me became one my husband and I passed on to our children.  This lesson had governed what happened in that car that night.  That and God's mercy.

Our family's seatbelt legacy is a small example of what consistent biblical parenting looks like. For most parents, setting the standards is not as difficult as enforcing them day in and day out. Taking the high road often makes us unpopular with our children, their friends, and even our friends. We get weary and sometimes wonder if it is really worth it. Sometimes our children seem determined to go their own way, totally disregarding and dismissing all that we try to teach them.

Faithful parent, I want to encourage you on this Mother's Day to press on.  Do not grow weary in doing good, for God's word promises that we will reap a harvest if we do not faint. Recognize that you cannot do it alone, and ask God to fill you with His strength. Your children's only hope is consistent biblical parenting.  And God's mercy.


 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Pr 22:6

This post was shared on Bible Love Notes' Bless a Blogger Friday at  http://biblelovenotes.blogspot.com/p/friday-blog-hop.html