Tag Archives: christian life

Tools of the Trim

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Rails and Sails! Last week (July 9th), I posted about my friends’ boat, Glorious Day!

It is a wonderful craft that was smooth on the water and a joy to be in for the day.

This picture was hanging in their cabin.

When I saw this, I loved it. It spoke volumes to me. I will summarize for you here in this post.

Before I get to the summary, here are three links for extra credit:

Rails and Sails

Glorious Day!

Wind in your face?

I found it intriguing that I had blogged about sailing before this post. Back in May 2015, the post, Wind in your face? was posted. Let us find out if anything has changed…

When someone sails, the wind needs to blow. No wind means no progress.

Keeping the sails at maximum efficiency seems to be at the heart of sailing.

Let me make some comparisons. Comparison #1 Wind equals problems.

Yes, there are days that the wind does not blow but those are rare. Wind can affect all areas of life. Everywhere and anywhere, the wind will blow.

Comparison # 2 Life equals sailing.

We all have goals. There are things we want to obtain or achieve. The range of these goals is wide. Spiritual, physical, financial, mental, vocational, or whatever category you want to use: we all have goals.

But like I said earlier, no wind means no progress.

Or, if we use my comparisons, No problems means no progress.

To use a sailing term, we must trim our sails.

Simply, trim means to adjust.

I can’t tell the wind when or where to blow. It does its own thing.

I can’t tell life what to do to me. It will move on regardless of me.

All I can do is adjust my sails.

God promises me the power and strength to do what I need to do. My relationship with God will allow me to “trim” when the wind comes. It could be a minor adjustment or even a new way of thinking.

Continual reading of God’s word and habitual prayer are the tools of the trim.

So just like a sailboat, I can make progress because of the wind, not in spite of it.

Blow wind blow!

Glorious Day!

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Sailing, I found, was peaceful. It was a perfect little escape. The weather was terrific and even better, were our host friends, Mike and Michelle.

Glorious Day is the name of their boat.

I also found out that I do not know very much about sailing.

Here are some terms that the average person most likely would not know:

  • Luff: The luff is the front edge of the sail between the tack and head.
  • Leech: The leech is the aft part of the sail between the clew and head.
  • Gybing- When you steer the vessel from a starboard tack to a port tack and vice versa downwind.
  • Mizzen sail: A mizzen sail is typically a small triangular sail set on the aft mast of a boat with several masts, like the ketch rig.
  • Boom Vang/Rod Kicker: A compression pole is used to tension the boom downwards. 

There are many more but those are some of the more peculiar terms.

Mike and Michelle are awesome! They were gracious hosts to my wife and me.

As we made out from the port, Mike would explain these various terms to me. He would also instruct me to “hold this rope tight”, “crank this lever” or “just sit tight for a minute”.

At one point, I even got to steer the boat! But make no mistake, Mike was and always will be, from the beginning, the captain of the Glorious Day.

After an hour or so, Michelle prepared lunch. So here we are sailing, eating, and talking with friends. As I said, it was a fantastic day!

On this map, the red star is the city of Green Bay. The water that goes up and to the right of the red star is the bay of Green Bay. If you find the town of Little Suamico (just north of Green Bay), that is where we entered the water.

As I recall this little excursion, this thought dominated my mind: Life can be like sailing and God is my captain.

There are times when my Captain tells me to “hold this rope” or “sit down”. He is telling me how to live and how to live right.

The storms of life provide an ample amount of wind for the sails. Is this a good thing or bad? More on this in my next post.

It even feels like I get to pilot the boat on occasion.

Sure, there are terms that I don’t know. Maybe I am not sure of the timing on when (or which) sail to unfurl. So many things are taking place at once.

And the Captain is 100% aware of all of them at any given second in time.

And He will even have a nice meal waiting for you and me!

So grab your life vest and come aboard!

Yes, that is me. I just wanted to be like Bill Murray in What About Bob?

P.S. If you are reading this for the first time, I would recommend going back to the post of July first. It will give some context for the content of this post and also the next couple of months. Click here.

Questions. What do you want to ask? part 2

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A few days ago, I posted the first post in this series. The question that was asked is, “Why are you untying the colt?” The story comes from Luke 19. Click here to read the post.

Questions. We all have them. There are too many in the bible to count. I am going to focus on two of them today. The last post in the series will come on Easter (or perhaps the day after).

When we read about Jesus, there seem to be many questions floating around. Often, people are wondering who this guy is and how can he perform miracles and such. The religious leaders are always in a state of anger because Jesus doesn’t ever give them a straight answer. Let’s read a few verses from Luke.

One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him. “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,” they said. “Who gave you this authority?” He replied, “I will also ask you a question. Tell me: John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or of human origin?” They discussed it among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will ask, ‘Why didn’t you believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ all the people will stone us, because they are persuaded that John was a prophet.” So they answered, “We don’t know where it was from.” Jesus said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.” Luke 20:1-8 NIV

Notice how the question was asked of Jesus, “Who gave you this authority?” A fairly legitimate question. I laugh at how Jesus confused his inquisitors. They didn’t know how to answer him.

It is this author’s opinion that the heart attitude of the people was not in a good place. They wanted to catch Jesus doing something wrong. They did not trust him. He was the enemy.

If our hearts follow that pattern, Jesus will be our enemy as well.

I ask you, in this Easter season, to check your heart. Jesus loves you and me so much it is incomprehensible. Don’t make him your enemy.

The second question comes two chapters later.

Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.” Luke 22:39-46 NIV

Has that question ever been asked of you, “Why are you sleeping?”. Has Jesus ever asked you that one?

As followers of Christ, we have work to do. And yes, sometimes we get tired. There is even a day of rest built into our week. Jesus will empower us to do the job he has called us to do.

As much as I ask you, I am also asking myself. Am I sleeping right now – spiritually speaking?

If you or I answer yes, then get up! Jesus needs us. His end was near when he was praying in the Garden.

The end is near (end times, apocalypse, Revelation etc.). Now is not the time to slumber.

We can go out and fight this war. Our Captain will direct and lead us into the battle.

And we will win.

Sleepers can’t swing swords.

Turkey and Frosting

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Happy Thanksgiving! I know I am a week late, but I am still eating turkey leftovers.

Wow. Over a month has gone by since my last post. Time can really move!

If you have been waiting for the conclusion to this series or are brand new to this blog,

I welcome you.

Thanks for taking two minutes out of your day.

If you would like to catch up or get some context, here are the links to the first three posts:

Double Birthday

Double Birthday, Again!?!?

The Day of Atonement explained

“Jesus changed everything. He always does. More on that next week.”

These are the final words of my last post.

And friends, I believe that with all my heart.

I can’t speak on behalf of other people. However, I can speak about my life.

Here is a picture of my life without Jesus.

  • I wonder if I would have my family. Surely, my wife would have left me long ago because of my addiction to porn. That is something that I could not overcome without Jesus.
  • My kids would only be around part-time. It pains me to think about not seeing my kids on a daily basis because of the divorce.
  • Jobs…I think that I would be barely making ends meet. Fast food work is not something I would earn a living on.
  • There were bouts of mild depression in my early twenties. Most likely I would be in a depression right now.
  • Alcohol…not really something I abused. But who knows, without Jesus, the bottle might be more attractive to me.
  • My relationship history was not the best. That pattern would probably continue to this day.
  • I most certainly would not have excellent friends from my church. I would not even belong to a church.
  • And the list continues…

Of course, this is all hypothetical. Jesus changed everything.

I do have a loving wife and wonderful kids. My addictions are broken. I work at a dream job. My church is close to me.

Because I have Jesus, I have everything I need. All this other stuff is really just his blessing. Frosting.

May I conclude with a question or two?

Do you have Jesus?

He cannot be bought, earned, manipulated, or caught. He must be invited.

He will change your life…for the better.

Are you ready to send that invite?

If you have questions or comments, I would love to field them. You can comment below or email me directly – tim@timsorbo.com

Thanks, as always, for reading. It might just be the best two minutes of your day.

See you next week for some thoughts on Advent.

Free Parking

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Welcome back! At least that is what I am saying to myself right now. I feel like I have been really busy lately.

Oh wait, I have. Being a school teacher, this is a crazy part of the year. So yes, I have been busy but now I am ready to write!

I started a series back in August. Here is the first post, and also the second. These can help give you context.

Free Parking

You have probably figured out by now that this series will all have Monopoly titles. While these titles may not be specifically related to the content, they will be directly drawn from the game.

Hence, Free Parking.

In the rules of Monopoly, Free Parking is just a space. It is a free space on which to land. You don’t get anything or pay anything. There are house rules that are certainly different from the original though!

On my road trip, we had one day in which we took a mini trip to Philadelphia.

Even though I had never been to Philly before, I had some places on my wish list that I needed to visit.

Liberty Bell, check.

Liberty Hall (where the Declaration of Independence was signed), check.

See the steps where Rocky ascended in the movie, check.

Eat a Philly cheese steak sandwich, check.

These were places (or food items) that I knew about. We also discovered a few more hidden gems along the way.

So in order to keep this to two minutes, I will have multiple posts regarding Philadelphia.

Here is the first connection from Philly that I would like to share.

It involves the Declaration of Independence, more accurately, the signing of the Declaration.

I am not concerned with how many signers there were.

It doesn’t matter where they were.

The signatures are of differing sizes, so what.

I am intrigued by the timing of the signing.

When these men laid ink to parchment, they were not free men. They were still under British rule.

The founding fathers chose to identify with the spiritual King, not their earthly king.

They were acting on their future freedom in America, not their present prison from England.

For me, the connection came to me when we were standing in Liberty Hall.

It hit me about the timing.

Technically, British rule still applied. But these men did not want that fact to determine the outcome of their life.

They were free. They said it, signed it, and sealed it!

What will you do with your freedom?