We were standing knee deep in water. That wouldn’t really be so bad, but the water was in a boat that was lying on its side. That might not be that big a deal either, but the boat was lying on its side in the middle of a narrow, granite-lined canyon, the wind was howling like a teenager who just had her texting privileges taken away, and it was getting dark. At least the constant lightning was helping with the darkness problem.
Sailing in Colorado can be challenging. I have always been one for air-sports, and the current one is sailing. The only problem is that sailing in mountain lakes means dealing with mountain weather. Mountain weather means you might have perfect conditions for a while, then dead calm, then thunder, lightning, and gale force winds. You just never know. On the evening in question, we had all of the above.
My friend Rusty and I had enjoyed an hour and a half of perfect conditions and wonderful sailing. Then a huge storm cell began to approach the lake from the mountains to the south. We turned back toward the dock, which also happened to be toward the storm, at this point, but that is when we entered a half hour of dead calm. We knew it wouldn’t last and that we were in for a very strong headwind. Sure enough, when it arrived conditions went from calm to somewhere around 40 mph in a minute or so.
So there we were, my 21-year-old crewman and I, with the boat pinned down by the wind on its port side and rapidly drifting toward the rocks. I kept telling him, in the calmest voice I could manage, “She’ll come back up, just wait, she’ll come back up.” I knew in my mind, and was grasping to believe in my heart, that this was actually true. The reason that I could make this confident confession is that this boat is designed to right itself from ANY gust of wind. I knew that under our feet (well actually at that point out beside us, but it is supposed to be under our feet) a 500-pound keel hangs about 4 feet below the hull. So, even if the boat gets pushed over so far that the mast hits the water, once the sails spill the wind, or the wind drops just a little, it will come back up–at least, that’s what all the books say.
But in the gathering, lightning shattered gloom, with the screaming wind, and that gray granite so close, I wondered if the books were right. We only had two choices–wait for the boat’s design characteristics to put it back on its feet and try to sail away from the cliff, or give up, jump overboard, and swim for the other side of the lake. We waited. The wind subsided just a bit, and she came up. That experience gave us much more confidence to go through the same scenario five or six more times in the next fifteen minutes. Then the wind dropped just enough for us to make the run to safety.
Good story, but what’s the point? God’s principles work the same way. Our God did not just create life in the sense that He made living beings. He did make living beings, but He designed and created the actual idea and scope of life. He created the physical world and the laws that govern it. He created relationship and the rules that make it work. He created every thing, every emotion, every physical interaction between elements – He created it all. And, He created the Great Spiritual Principles that are always at work in and around the universe. He didn’t just make seeds, He made the principle of seedtime and harvest that make seeds work, He didn’t just create us with a capacity to believe, He released faith itself from the depths of His being–faith that accesses the divine flow of grace, favor, and every provision. He created purpose, and compassion, and love, and curiosity. He created life.
My point is that sometimes you just have to stand there with the wind howling and things looking bleak, knowing that you are standing on some unsinkable principles. We are all going to go through some storms in life, and as for me and my house, we want to be standing on the unsinkable principles of God when they hit. We decided long ago that we would do everything we could to, having given our lives to Christ, to follow Him, to learn His ways, and to allow His Spirit to transform the very way we think, so that our lives will be built on those unsinkable truths of His Word.
When Rusty and I got back to the dock that night I was shaken, and shaking. I won’t mind at all if I never get into conditions like that again. But we did get back for two reasons: because the designer of this old boat knew what he was doing, and because we stood our ground on what we knew to be true. We even learned some things along the way, and we are ready to go out again–weather permitting. When we go out, the same design elements that kept us afloat that night will be right along with us.
Now, if someone would just explain to me why my wife still refuses to go sailing with me, I would appreciate it.
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