Joe Myzia has blogged on Hebrews 2:1 in a post called “Don’t Drift Away“, warning us to be vigilant against the gradual process of losing fire for God. I grew up on the waters of the northern Pacific Ocean and maritime imagery in the Bible always has a special resonance with me; in his Daily Bible Study commentary, William Barclay vividly translated this verse as:
“Therefore, we must the more eagerly anchor our lives to the things that we have been taught lest the ship of life drift past the harbour and be wrecked.”
What happens when you wake up one day and realize how far your “ship of life” has drifted out of the harbor and into perilous waters? Do you panic and row hard for land through demonstrative works, exhausting yourself in a few short minutes so that you’re carried even further out to sea? Do you throw up your hands in defeat and condemn yourself to the mercies of the tides, casting your lot that God’s grace alone will bring you back to the safety of shore? Or do you soberly take your bearings, pray that you would be filled with God’s renewing strength, and bend your will to restoring your relationship with his Spirit?
Winslow Homer tackled a subject akin to this in his great seascape, “The Fog Warning” (1885), in which a fisherman rows steadily back to his ship in the face of rising seas and impending fog and darkness:
“Men who are accustomed to danger occupy a mental attitude towards it that has no room for melodramatic pose. Simple, sober, the unconscious hero of the picture turns to get the bearings of his schooner as he bends to his oars with all the steadiness of a man who has a long way to row and who must neither waste his strength in spurts nor lose his head. Small amidst the waves of the Atlantic looks his dory, far away seems the vessel, hard and cruel is the complexion of the sea. . . .” (William Howe Downes, “American Paintings in the Boston Art Museum“)
No matter how far away God seems, we must trust that he will give us the strength to return to the safety of his harbor. Nothing is impossible with God; his journey may take our entire life’s span and wring out every drop of our constitution along the way, but to arrive at the Kingdom’s shore will be the sweetest reward.
I was expecting your third option to be to hoist your sails and allow the wind of God’s Spirit to blow you where he wills. That might not be good navigational advice on the literal north Pacific, but surely it is good metaphorical advice for believers who are spiritually lost.
It would be interesting, Peter, to have you weigh in on the question of whether God has an individual will for our lives. Joe Myzia and I both are of the opinion, informed by the work of Greg Koukl and Garry Friesen, respectively, that God’s will exists on a sovereign level and a moral level, but not individually. Instead, God has given us the freedom to use wisdom and moral guidance (the Bible) to make individual choices.
the waters of the northern Pacific Ocean
Ah, yes, Catch a Mac Bay. What a lovely place!
Ah, yes, Catch a Mac Bay. What a lovely place!
Indeed. In addition to Kachemak Bay and southern Cook Inlet, I spent a lot of time in Prince William Sound out of Valdez.