Tag Archives: God

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.

Treasure and Ponder

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“This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph,” Matthew 1:18

Some versions say espoused or betrothed. We would say engaged.

That means a wedding is on the way!!!

Mary was engaged to Joseph. They were committed. There may have not been a ring like we would typically use today but nonetheless, a wedding was coming soon.

Sometimes the engagement would last up to a year. This was a time to prepare for marriage. The couple would be able to ask God’s blessing on their relationship as husband and wife. Household affairs would have been taken care of at this time. Even the building of a house could be happening. Although not physically together, unfaithfulness at this point would have been considered adultery.

I have performed almost 300 weddings. It is a privilege to sit with couples during their engagement and speak with them. There are some great stories of how he proposed. It really is a special time for young couples. I know life happens but I always encourage each couple to enjoy this time because it goes fast and can be exciting. Hopefully, it is the only time they are ever engaged!

In the case of Mary and Joseph, I think they had similar feelings. Knowing that the time is relatively short before the wedding probably induced (no pun intended here) emotions and feelings of love, honor, respect etc.

And then the bomb dropped.

Pretend you are a fly on the wall when Mary and Joseph are having that conversation. You know, the one where Mary is pleading with him that she has remained pure. The child is from God, not man!

How do you explain that one!?!?

Right from the get-go, God is using the low things of our world to usher in Jesus. This continues with the inn with no rooms, the stable, and the animals. Even a feeding trough for the baby.

Really God, shepherds as a herald for the King of kings?

And Mary is in the middle of all this stuff. She, being a teenager, most likely just passed her adolescence years, is having to carry this ordeal. Again, no pun intended.

But Luke tells us that she treasured and pondered these things.

Parents, how do we deal with the stuff of life?

When we are at a low point, do we treasure and/or ponder?

What is our knee-jerk reaction?

Let’s take a cue from Mary.

Whether we are a parent, soon-to-be-parent, or future candidates for parenting, we can certainly learn from this young but mature woman.

Follow God. Treasure things. Ponder the possibilities.

Who knows what God will bring into the world through us. (Pun intended there)

Mom and Dad. Parents. Wow.

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I went to a baby shower today. It was a couple’s baby shower. And since my wife and mother-in-law were the planners of this party, there was no escape.

It was actually kind of fun. Not that I want to make this a habit but I did enjoy the little get together, especially the mini key lime cheesecakes!

My brother-in-law is getting married in July. They are expecting their baby in June…I hope the baby isn’t too late!

Being there, eating finger foods and watching the happy couple open gifts of diapers, various bottle apparatus, and a plethora of soft animal things, I got to thinking.

This is her first child, his second. They are about to have their world rocked. Sure, having a 10 year old boy has certainly given my brother-in-law some experience to work off of here. But my soon-to-be sister-in-law is on the edge of the diving ready to plunge into the deep end. I mean really, you go to the hospital, just the two of you. In 2 or 3 days, there are three of you leaving together. They don’t even give you an instruction manual!

Kids. I have 2 of them. 18 and 15 years old. There are days when I am not really sure I am doing the right thing. Other days, my calm and strength come from a solid foundation in the truth of God. Those are two extreme places to be but when parenting, there are no restrictions. I just try to be consistent.

And that brings me to my blog. I want to write about parenting.

There will be some personal experience sprinkled in but mainly I will focus on Joseph and Mary.

God has given us His word. In this word, specifically Matthew 1, we can find out how Joseph and Mary became parents and what that first Christmas looked like for them.

If I may make a disclaimer here. I am not a licensed parenting psychologist or anything professional like that. I do however, have children and I was once a child. I do know something about life and raising kids.

And over the next two weeks or so, I am going to share these things with you.

With that in mind, enjoy your week. And don’t forget, Mother’s day is 7 days away. Do something about that!

Questions. What do you want to ask? part 3

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HE HAS RISEN!!! May this truth be more real than ever to you today.

I hope you have enjoyed the questions we looked at in this blog more closely.

Sidenote…I found it quite interesting that my pastor, today, based his sermon in John 18 and 19. In those two chapters, he looked at three questions that Pilate asked in the presence of Jesus.

If you feel like browsing, here is the link to our church’s youtube channel. As of this writing, I don’t think the Easter message is posted yet but it should be within a day or so.

And this link is to the church website. Central Church

And now on to my last question in this series.

The bible is overflowing with questions. This series could go on for months if we addressed all the questions we read. My pastor’s sermon only had three questions in it.

But I do have a favorite question. Of all of them, one sticks out to me. It resonates with me. I would even say I get equal parts challenge and encouragement from this single question. It has the ability to motivate and drive my life.

All human endeavors are summed up in a single sentence. Why we do what we do is contained in these words.

Are you ready? Sorry, not the question to which I am referring!

Here are the first 8 verses from Luke 24:

1On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8Then they remembered his words. Luke 24:1-8 NIV

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?”

I will share a few quick thoughts.

  1. Trust – Jesus said he was going to die and then be raised again. Maybe the ladies didn’t really believe it because he has been in the grave for three days.
  2. Timing – They were planning on anointing the body of Jesus but did not go the day after the crucifixion. It was the Sabbath so they had to wait an extra day. Jesus said three days.
  3. Temporal – This is the part that gets me. The angel said, “among the dead”. How many times do we look for life (happiness, joy, peace, life etc.) among things that are temporal (dead)? Drugs, Alcohol, Sex, Gambling, Job, Relationship, Games, Art, Sleep…or anything else?
  4. Toga – Okay, maybe it wasn’t actually a toga but it started with the correct letter. Jesus was gone and the shroud (toga) left behind symbolizes (at least in my opinion) that Jesus did not need the material things we seek after.
  5. Tomb – Tombs are full of dead things. Our living Savior is not there anymore.

These are the reasons why this question is my favorite. It encompasses all of life. Jesus is life and we can end our search with him.

So there is no reason to go to the tomb.

You can find life in our risen Lord. Jesus is waiting for you to look for him.