Storm on the Bering!

This is every sailor's nightmare - a storm at sea - especially at night!
Few of us take the time to imagine the "cost" of the seafood we buy, prepare and consume for our meals. All of it comes with rigorous, cold, difficult, soaking-wet effort, and much of it at the risk of human lives.

Customarily, the crews of seafood processing ships eat and toil sixteen hours a day that they fish, and, maybe?, read or sleep for eight. Work for sixteen hours and rest for eight. When they get to port (usually Dutch Harbor) with full and frozen storage lockers in the bottom of the ships, all hands turn out to offload, even if some had just gone to sleep in their coffin-like bunks.

Fishing vessels are not designed for comfort, and the 151 foot long ship our son, Mark, signed on to for a three month stint was soon at their fishing area- the Bering Sea - where the seas are typically rough in decent weather, and the storms are frequent and rougher.

Mark's first storm scared him more than any other frightening life experiences before and since - and he prayed more and harder! The fearful and repetitious pounding of giant waves, combined with the darkened crew's quarters (someone was always asleep), made sleep and peace of mind impossible. In his mind, Mark was certain that they were going to go down, and would soon be in the freezing, salty embrace of vicious, mountainous seas.

He said to himself, "I am not going to go down in this darkened, rolling, tossing bunk. I'm going up on the deck and talk to Colin (their skipper)''.

He stumbled up steep, iron steps and opened the deck hatch to the ominous shriek of screaming, salty sheets of stinging spray, quickly grasping the ever-present lifelines strategically placed for night movement on slanting, pitching decks.

Immediately Mark's attention was drawn to huge seas where their comparatively tiny craft bore directly down on each one, with intrepid, courageous challenge. They appeared to be a small bit of foam or piece of flotsam in comparison. The terrific pounding came as the result of their ship's temporary respite on each wave's crest, and then right down into the yawning trough of each succeeding, monstrous wave. "We have to be going down," Mark seriously concluded.

He forged his way to the lighted wheelhouse intending to ask Colin how long this could continue, and when they would go down, and what their chances of survival might be? Mounting the deck, he paused in wonder. Colin was sitting in a deck chair smoking his pipe and reading something. He never even had a finger on the wheel, but had it locked in place - directly challenging each threatening sea!

Without a word, Mark carefully made his way back to his darkened bunk. If the captain was not afraid, he had no reason to worry. Colin had weathered many a Bering Sea storm, and obviously, Mark lived to tell me this story.

The application is clear. Our Captain has control of our storms. They are no threat to Him!

When It Storms

Any time a Christian's peace is gone, it is of the devil. Oh, how well I know that most of us have been taught not to blame the devil...but the fact is that it is he who is behind the disruption & absence of peace.

We live in a world of conflict, confusion, upset, anger, disagreements and offenses. We cannot avoid these unpleasant, and at times, destructive and painful experiences - as hard as we try, and as much as we hate them!

Things can be going along "normally" (that means they are favorable and pleasant), and almost without warning or cause, we are in the midst of upheaval - at home, at work, at school or at church.

As mentioned, we have to conclude that such "clashes" are most frequently unavoidable, for most of the time - even with the benefit of hindsight - we wonder how in the world it happened? Oh, there are reasons, but not anywhere near the level of the resultant hurt, distress and separation.

This stuff is from the devil! It is not of God, and most often not even "our fault" - again to the level of such great harm and pain. Behind great conflicts and offenses is a dirty devil who gets his jollies from upseting the saints, and he delights in "helping" us maintain huge quanities of guilt and blame for days at a time.

Ephesians 6:12 maintains that: "we wrestle not against flesh and blood" (but against Satan's powers).

In John 14:27 our Lord specifically promised to His followers that: "My peace I give unto you, and not the peace of the world".

He continues in John 16:33, "These things have I spoken unto you that in Me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world".

Here are two certainties. One, we cannot escape tribulation because we are earthlings. We cannot avoid; we cannot anticipate; we cannot walk close enough to the Lord; we cannot stay in the Word or pray enough; we cannot try hard enough; to eliminate conflicts, misunderstandings, disagreements and the pain that accompanies them.

What we can do is, two, be mature enough to know that the devil is actively fostering all of them. We can pray for grace and patience. We can apologize and ask forgiveness. We can stay tender and humble. And we can refuse to affix blame...to ourselves or to others. We grow up in grace when we place the lion's share of the blame right where it belongs!

Will You Quit?

"The boss criticized my work once too often today, so I just told him to write out my time! I was looking for a job when I found this one!"

"I've listened to his last complaint of burnt dinners, undone laundry and unpaid bills! I am suing for a divorce!"

"So the church board does not like my idea! Maybe they can get along without my tithe and membership too!"

Yes, quitting is just that easy and is usually accomplished with about as much reason or possible result. The savored satisfaction of separation from responsibility is just about as momentary and disappointing as the independence of estrangement is solitary and imaginary. The ardent, persistent and dedicated construction of years and tears can be toppled to a ruinous heap in a single sweep of a hasty decision.

The most dangerous desertion is that from Christian faith, for it may occur within and not be outwardly noticeable. A believer can continue to "perform" church functions and have a heart that is cold and dead spiritually.

There are definite reasons why personal faith in God is so severely tested. Primarily it is because of its priceless value, for faith is the single connection and transmission line to God. Faith is the vehicle to eternal life.

A further reason, perhaps more of an enlargement of the primary one, is that there is such great gain or loss involved. Satan will do his worst to destroy, and the Holy Spirit will do His best, to encourage, our faith.

When in the traitored embrace of temptation to quit, be assured if there were nothing to lose, yours and mine would be the pathway of ease. The grueling tests of faith certify the existence of properties that are certain, and far above our greatest imaginations.

We must remember that the fires of testing are meant to refine and not destroy. In His infinte wisdom, God matches the test with the degree of resistence. He knows how much we can bear, and this is so encouraging in the great tests.

A Story of Scars

As I was reading my Bible this morning, bumping the fleshy part of my left hand uneasily kept bringing to memory the reason why it was so tender, and why the red, swollen abrasion needed to avoid being bumped.

It was the latest of over seventy scars counted on my two hands.

Reflecting on them, a heartening sermon arose. Besides this latest one, only three of them could evoke the memory of causes. One came of dressing rabbits as a lad, another from extracting a nipple from a broken baby bottle during a high school initiation, the the third from a doctor's two incisions from going after a half inch long, plywood sliver he never found. (It eventually came out of its own accord after about six months).

Think of this! Four of the largest scars were there from injuries I could not even recall!

Strangely, the ones easiest remembered are the latest - this last one from a naughty piece of concrete rebar that rolled into and tore a hole in my hand.

The truth that you can seldom work without getting injuries is equally true as we labor for the Lord in the work of His heavenly kingdom. The bruises of misunderstanding, and the lacerations of criticisms, are certain to be a part of church work. As much as we try to avoid them, and as much as we want them never to happen, they will occur with just about as much regularity as scratches, cuts, bruises and injuries to our bodies as we work with our hands.

How heartening it is to remember the story of scars. A few of them can be remembered, but most are blissfully forgotten.

By W.L. Boone