FLUTTERING SAILS

Fact: your direction determines your destination. You can run as fast and hard as you want, but unless you have some place you are going, you are just running fast and going nowhere, using your own energy.

Running requires energy, and ours has a limit. No matter how hard we try, there is a limit to how much energy we can expend, and at some point, we run out. We use our energy to pull us, but that will get us only so far. Have you ever sailed? Sailing is amazing, and it uses the wind for its energy. No wind, no energy. When there is wind, in any amount, sailboats can sail.

Funny thing about sailing is that, although the amount of wind you need to sail is minimal, you need to be on tack. I am not sure of all the technical terms of sailing, but I know that you can sail into the wind, harnessing its power, by switching the sail back and forth, filling it with wind. It is amazing, fun to watch, and unbelievable to experience.

But you can't just point and go. You have to be pointed in just the right direction and "wump!" the sails fill and off you go. Move a little in either direction and the sails will flutter and you lose the power of the wind. Know what controls the direction of a sailboat? The small piece on the very back of the boat called a rudder. It might be one of the smallest elements of a sailboat, but it is critical for direction.Without it, a sailboat has no ability to turn. At all...it becomes directionless.

Our faith lives are very similar to a sailboat. We move best under the power of the wind, and we need to stay on course. There is an energy source that can push us like a sailboat is pushed by the wind, and it is the Holy Spirit. When we are pointed in the right direction, our sails can be filled and "wump!" off we go, under the power of the Holy Spirit. But direction is everything, and unless we are "on tack", our sails could flutter and leave us with no power to move forward. We, too, need a rudder.

The rudder controls the direction of a sailboat, so then we need a rudder for our lives. The Bible is that rudder for us. We need to be using it for our direction, otherwise without it we could become directionless, and then who knows where we might end up.

...just sayin' 

In His Grip,

Pastor Pat