Stay The Course

We’ve all been guilty of wandering off our intended direction. You know, as a butterfly flits this way and that based on wind currents! You and I drift with the currents and tide. Perhaps we are struggling with an attention deficit disorder (should probably simply say ADD), or we’ve allowed our mind to drift with the moment.

Done this, I have.

Maybe even too often to remember. It surely becomes a habit. Go with the flow. Yield to the moment. Take a break that becomes an all day affair.

While reading Jack London’s A Sea Wolf, I was struck by the action of the helmsman. That’s the driver of the ship, standing in the back with that huge spoked steering wheel. With the use of a compass, and reading the wind in the sails, the driver would shift the direction of the wheel to compensate all the factors attempting to take the ship off course.

It takes special attention to stay the course, as in, stay “on” course.

Here’s My Thought Today

Peter had announced his undying love and support for Jesus.

“Peter said to him, “Even if everyone else abandons you, I never will.””  Matthew 26:33 (GW)

In other translations, that word “abandon” is modified by the interpreter as “stumble, fall away, turn away, offended”. This variety of word choices is lengthy. It depends on the language of the day.

Yet, the thought is here. Nothing will cause me to change the course of my life! I Never Will!

From the Garden in the opening pages of Genesis, and long past the last book of the Bible has been written, we see that it’s easy to turn away from God. The Prodigal. Elijah. Demas. Even Peter.

How could Peter do this? He was the Rock. The one with the revelation. The inner circle of the inner circle. Later on, we find that Peter is the head of the disciples as the church begins on the foundation of the Spirit, and Peter is its first spokesperson..

Peter… et’ tu?

Along the pathways of choice, it seems we often find it easier to wander, or consciously turn away from our intended – direction, love, or even goal. A word is spoken, a threat is implied, a crisscrossed moment of thinking straight…

We all do this.

Think about it. From the person we once adored, to that friend that was the best (BFF), or that car we simply thought could never be improved upon. Let one shift of life happen, and suddenly our feelings and thoughts are fleeing from our once undying love and admiration.

This happens to all of us!

I had made such headway on my pathway to better weight management, and then a surgery slowed me down. Throw in a tragedy or two, hurt feelings, several graveyards later, and suddenly something once thought overly important is now a memory. Add to that, most of it happened out of state and the weight of my calling back home was weighing heavily.

It made me forget my goal.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Really? Reality is that we all slip out of the mode of showing our toughness and wallow in the comfort of self-pity or lost moments. Even if it’s a micro-shift of direction, and though not felt at the moment, consider the direction tomorrow.

From another post a few years back.

‪ 1 degree of rudder shift may not be immediately noticed, but chart out the shift and see what it looks like 12 hours later. ‬

It doesn’t take much of a shift to see the change down the road a few hours later.

Give It Some Time

Give it some time, and the ship rights itself back to the course you once left behind. Feelings are forgiven, words are retracted, and we move forward. Stronger than we were, but also with the understanding how easy it is for us to wander out of place.

Even as with Peter…

It is only in the Gospel of Mark that we find the angel telling the ladies on the resurrection morning…

“Go and tell his disciples and Peter that he’s going ahead of them to Galilee. There they will see him, just as he told them.””  
Mark 16:7 (GW)

Why the focus on Peter? Imagine the heartbeat and mind of Peter as he fled from the scene of betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane. Then, the denial scenes unfolded around that early morning trial of Jesus. “I never knew him!” Then the cock crowed, and Peter went out and wept bitterly.

It happened just as Jesus said. (Luke 22:34)

It’s almost as if Peter had forfeited his right to a disciple. You know, part of the inner circle of the inner circle.

When Peter realizes that it’s Jesus on the shore after a night of fishing, he flees from the boat! Did he walk on water? Probably not. But he was there with Jesus on the shore for some time before the remainder of the disciples arrived.

I wonder what they talked about. Though I’m not sure, these words do ring in my spirit, and I hope they do with you.

Repentance. Forgiveness. Restoration.
Back on course!