Rough Seas

Whenever I go to Lawton, OK, I see this quote on a family counseling sign:  Rough Seas Make Skillful Sailors.  It always makes me think.

This quote is really true, isn't it?  When we're having troubles in our lives, we are learning something new.  We're learning to deal with the trial or struggle - maybe juggling a dozen things (or a million!) all at once.  But, it's at those rough times that we rely more on God and less on ourselves.  It's at those times we search for ways to mend what is broken or heal what is hurting. It's God who can calm those rough seas and His Spirit working within us to make us skillful sailors. We must anchor ourselves to Him for strength.

If we went through life with only smooth seas, we would become complacent.  Oh, it sounds like it would be great- just coasting along without any worries at all, but we wouldn't be learning and growing.  And once a living organism fails to grow - it dies.

Remember the story in the Bible when the apostles were in the boat with Jesus and a storm came up?  The boat rocked back and forth in the rough sea and the apostles were scared and worried, but what was Jesus doing?  He was sleeping!  The apostles woke him up and said, "Don't you care that we were about to perish?"  The apostles  Jesus knew that God was in control.  In His own voice He calmed the sea. Because the apostles were scared, they saw that Jesus provided them with safety.  They saw that He was able to save them. 

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let us go across to the other side." And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

Mark 4:35-41

If the apostles had not been faced with "rough seas" from time to time, they would have failed to see their need for a Savior.  If we never have rough seas in our lives from time to time, we may not see the need for a Savior, either.  Rough seas, do indeed, make skillful sailors and God should always be where we put our anchor.