New Year anchors.

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 duty. 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.

Duty!

This post is part of a brief series based on some words from the Acts of the Apostles: "... fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let out four anchors from the stern, and prayed for day to come." (Acts 27:29).  I have suggested that, in the Christian life, we need to have four anchors to keep us steady in the storms that life throws up against us.  In the last post, I suggested the necessity of Hope.  This time, I would suggest Duty.

Sometimes, we are inclined to rebel against our daily duty.  Yet duty is a sheet anchor (old salts will understand!).  There is little like it to make men and women of us.  We may chafe under it; we may sigh for leisure; we my wish to freed from bondage to set hours, appointments, rules and regulations, the apparently 'treadmill' round.  Yet this is, so often, part of God's schooling for us.

In Luke's account of the Gospel record, we find these words of Jesus to His disciples: "So you also, when you have done all that is commanded you, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.'" (Luke 17:10).  It is surely worth noting that the duty was done!

There are, I believe, ships - the lives of men and women - sailing the seas of life today, that would have been smashed on the rocks long ago, but for the anchor of duty.

Are you faithfully doing your duty today - to God; and to your fellow-man?

Bearing your cross!

Many folk, even in our increasingly post-Christian, Western, culture speak of the cross that they have to bear.  This usually refers to some kind of unpleasant set of circumstances over which they have no control.  They will say, in connection with their particular trial: "Well, it's my cross, and I'll just have to bear it!"

In fact, this is an inaccurate statement!  Such unpleasant circumstances and experiences may be thorns, or afflictions.  However, at least in the Biblical sense, they are not crosses.  Our cross is something that we assume voluntarily!  Jesus said, ""If any man would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me." (Matt 16:24).  The cross stands for death to self.  It entails suffering for the sake of Christ and His witness.  It is borne by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, in some fifty countries around the world today, where to own the Name of the Saviour is to leave oneself open to persecution at a level that is beyond the comprehension of those of us who live in the relative safety of the 'West'.  Bearing, or taking up, our cross means ennduring privation for Him in one way or another.

Our service, then, is regulated not by a grudging sense of duty, but by our dedication to the One Who bore a literal cross on His way to Calvary.  We no longer live for the applause of men, but for the glory of God.  This, I suspect, is why those in the persecuted church consistently ask the rest of us to pray - not for an end to their persecution, but for the grace and the strength to endure it!

If you profess to be a disciple of Jesus, are you willing to take up your cross for Him?  Remember, a dragged cross is always heavy; but those carried joyously will be amazingly 'light' (see Matt.11:30).

Duty

This morning, in my capacity as a Force Chaplain, I had the privilege of attending the Annual Service of Remembrance and Thanksgiving for Officers and civilian Staff of Strathclyde Police Force, who had died in service during the previous twelve months.  It was, as usual, a time to reflect on all of those who serve within the Police Forces, and other Emergency Services - not only within Strathclyde Region, but throughout the country.  As a general public, we owe much more to dedicated officers, and others, who faithfully do their duty day in and day out, than we sometimes realise.  As I remarked to one Inspector with whom I was chatting afterwards, I sometimes hear of so-called 'rogue' police officers, but I have yet to meet one!

Duty, of course, is a very strong source of motivation - even if the concept appears to have all but disappeared in the culture in which I live.  This past week has seen HM Queen Elizabeth, the British and Commonwealth Head of State, pass an important milestone in becoming the second-longest reigning monarch in recorded history.  One of the things that makes her the recipient of a great measure of respect - even from those of us who are not particularly monarchist in our leanings - is her generally recognised sense of duty.  At her coronation, she made solemn vows, and accepted great responsibility and, while so much around her has changed, and while she must have shed many a tear, in private, as she watched the shenanigans of many in her family, she has steadfastly remained true to her calling - basically from a sense of duty.

In Luke's account of the Gospel record, we find these words concerning the Lord Jesus: "Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, ..." (Luke 9:51; NKJV).  The crucifixion of Jesus, that was especially remembered just a few weeks ago, was not an accident; it was not a victory for evil; it was the result of One Who knew that it was His duty to fulfil the eternal purposes of the Father, and Who advanced to meet the enemy at Calvary.  Of course, we know that Good Friday led to Easter Day or, as Tony Campolo memorably put it "It's Friday - but Sunday's coming!"  What is sometimes forgotten is that, in His Humanity, Jesus suffered the same physical pain and agony as any other victim of crucifixion; that He knew exactly what He was being called upon to experience - hence His anguished cry in the Garden of Gethsemane: "Father, if Thou art willing, remove this cup from Me; nevertheless not My will , but Thine, be done." (Luke 22:42; RSV); that the spiritual suffering that He experienced ("My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ?" [Matt 27:46]) was over and above the physical torture.

And even that is not the whole story.  Because it was not only duty that took Jesus to the cross; it was love - love for you, and love for me.  That's why I find it difficult to understand the ingratitude of so many.  If a police officer, doing no more than his/her duty, were to die in the act of saving my physical life, I would be more grateful than I could ever express in words.  Jesus died, not just out of a sense of duty, but because of an eternal love, in order that might have spiritual life.  My debt of gratitude to this One - Who is King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who is "... the same yesterday , today, and forever." (Heb 13:8)  - must, surely, be overwhelming.  I trust that yours is, too!