Devotions from Margaret Silf’s book, At Sea With God

In the sea of life leaving the harbor can be both joyful and painful  If we are sailing on the full tide we may feel overwhelming delight and anticipation. If we are launching because of an experience of despair or trauma we may feel apprehensive. Others may hardly notice the moment they actually set sail.  Often though we my feel the need to push against the harbor walls of all we have known thus far and let go of any ropes that are holding us moored in the harbor.  Sometimes  the ropes are security as we may fear the unknown and are reluctant to take risks.  Or the rope may be the fear of offending those we perceive to be custodians of the harbor. Or we could be just inwardly lazy and prefer a quiet life in a safe haven. Our ropes are all probably different. But once at sea we may have times when we feel helplessly adrift. The rules we have known on land, seem to diminish in importance. We now look to the ocean chart and new “ocean disciplines”.  Our land map doesn’t seem to work well any more. This is about the time my methodical way of having devotions no longer served me. I longed for quiet and solitude and the spiritual disciplines. They were like landmarks along the way. Of course our new maps have to be updated continually too, as they reflect what is going on in our inner life. Let us all think today of those people in our lives that  have been landmarks also and helped us find our way. Maybe they seem to bob up just when we need someone with an encouraging signal.