Lighten Up! Pitch or Ditch!

I love sea imagery when it comes to this life journey we are on. Sometimes we can see the dark clouds rolling in and we can set about to batten down the hatches, but other times the storms seem to come from nowhere hitting us broadside and full force knocking us off our feet. It is true that sometimes the Master calms our storms, but other times He calms us in the midst of the storm.

Thankfully storms come and go. We have all weathered our own share of storms. Storms called illness, grief, disappointment, over-commitment, debt, job or financial loss, the breakup of a marriage or of a significant relationship just to name a few.

It’s not always a good thing, but I have observed that when the storms come I tend to pull back from others, go to the lower deck and lay low for a while in an effort to get my bearings. When my vessel becomes unsafe in my sea I must admit that I sometimes find myself, having to fight the urge to abandon ship. Abandoning the situation is rarely the answer. The answer is usually about what I must be willing to let go of in order to lighten my load for safety and sea worthiness. It is in this laying low place for me, that priorities get reordered and I am finally able to return to the upper deck with a plan that answers the question “what must I rid myself of in this time of storm?”

“We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. On the third day, they threw the ships tackle overboard with their own hands” (Paul sailing to Rome )Acts 27:18

Jettison defined:
(Not the futuristic cartoon guy w/Astro the dog & Jane his wife)
Jettison means to abandon, give up drop, throw away, discard or unload to insure I am not run aground.

For me, and by the looks of the most recent blog subjects, God has been working with several of us on “lightening up” in order to maintain margin in our lives. I am in the process of prayerfully having to jettison some things- not always bad things, but often things that keep me from the best. For me it is usually just one more good thing, that creates for me the perfect storm.

I want my cargo hold to store only the most needful things. I am badly in need of lightening up, and in more ways than one! I need to call on the Master of the seas to help me part with the things that need tossed, to give me the strength to rid myself of the things that weigh me down and those worthless things that jeopardize safe passage. I believe that it is in this "tossing" that we will finally and clearly be able to hear His voice amidst the wind and the waves saying “Peace be still.”

Till next time-
Peggy
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