During my years in the teaching profession, I taught a unit on “Rites of Passage” – birth, coming of age, marriage, and death. In it I would make the point that life is often likened to a voyage; that we often refer to “life’s stormy seas”; people being “stranded” and “shipwrecked”; to “finding a safe haven”. All nautical allusions of one kind or another.
Having also spent
a couple of years in the British Merchant Navy, I know that a good seafarer doesn’t set
sail without checking that all of the necessary equipment is on board, and in
good condition. As we set out on new
stage of journey of life – a new year – it may be helpful to take stock of a
very necessary item: the anchor.
In the New
Testament book of the Acts of the Apostles, Dr Luke records a storm at sea in
which the sailors “... fearing that we might run on the
rocks, … let out four anchors from the stern, and prayed for day to come.”
(Acts 27:29). I’d like to suggest four anchors that you and I
will find most useful on journey of life.
The first of
these is hope. As long as we have hope, sunk deep down in our inmost being,
then life cannot ever destroy us. It
may, and often will, hurt us – but it cannot break us. As long as hope holds out, we can weather the
roughest storm. We often here the old
adage that “Where there’s life, there’s hope”.
I would argue that it is also true that where there’s hope, there’s
life!
The second
anchor to take with us into a New Year, is hope. Sometimes we are inclined to rebel against the
circumstances that nail us to our daily duty.
Yet duty is a sheet anchor. There
is, as some of us have already learned, nothing like it to make men and women
out of us. We may chafe under it; we may sigh for leisure; it may sometimes
feel as if it is as much a cross as an anchor.
But we may gain much under the ruggedness and heaviness of a cross!
The third
anchor that I would suggest is, not unsurprisingly, prayer! It is sad, but true, that there are vast
numbers of people who seldom, if ever, pray, except in an emergency. But how can God possibly be real to such
people? It’s only as we talk, and
listen, and share that we get to know anyone in any real and meaningful way!
The last
anchor is love. Not, of course, any kind of soppy, or sentimental display of
emotion. But that deep love that has
been defined as “the minimum of emotion; and the maximum of evaluation”. To whom should that love be directed? Well,
as you would expect, I would claim that love for God should be paramount. And
we should love one another. And,
surprise, surprise, we should love even those who hate us. Against such love,
there is no weapon formed by man, that can have any effect.
May none of
us find, when the storms of life are raging, that our anchors have grown rusty
with neglect; or, worse, that we are at sea with no anchors aboard.
May you seek, and know, the blessing of Almighty God throughout 2025.