Anchors have been on my heart this week. Maybe it’s because I’m missing summer so much right now and time we spend on the lake, my happy place! Summer can’t come soon enough! And I think about how a simple anchor when we are boating makes such a difference in the quality and enjoyment of our day. As you know, anchors are used to connect a boat to the bottom of a body of water to prevent the boat from drifting due to wind or current. As the boat pulls on the anchor, the anchor digs in deeper and deeper.
When we are at Lewis and Clark Lake in South Dakota, we typically drive around on the lake for a while; and then we pick a spot we want to relax in next to one of the beautiful cliffs. Once we pick our spot, we drop anchor. When the anchor is firmly moored into the muddy bottom, we can sit and relax and enjoy the day without having to worry about getting too close to shore.
But on the flip side, when the anchor is not firmly dug into the bottom, the boat starts drifting and can get dangerously close to shore. There are lots of rocks underneath the surface just waiting to put a hole in our boat, so we have to be careful. If we get too close to shore, we fire up the engine, move away from shore, and drop anchor again, hoping this time the anchor will take a firm hold. When the anchor is secure, the boat stays safe. When it’s not secure, the boat moves with the wind and the current and is at risk of hitting rocks. What a great analogy for what we experience in our faith. There’s a huge difference between reading scripture and being anchored to it, truly connected and secure in the truth contained within it. We can read the words all day long, but if we aren’t firmly planted in what we are reading, we are going to drift easily and get off course. Being human, we tend to get anchored to the wrong things, things like routines, status, financial security, social standing, career, etc. For those of us who love routines and find comfort in them, when those routines get disrupted, our security and sense of safety is gone. The proverbial “rug” gets ripped out from underneath us, and we find ourselves treading water in anxiety and fear. Welcome to a worldwide pandemic! But when we are anchored in His Word and in His truth, the world can fall apart but we can stay steady and firm. For real! Nothing in the outside world can change what Jesus did on the cross for us and the transformation that truth can do inside of us...nothing! Just like a boat on the water, the more our anchor is moored into that truth and the deeper we go in our faith, the more we are able to remain steadfast and not be pulled off course when the winds come up. Social standing can be a deadly anchor as well. How many friends we have on Facebook, how many “likes” we have, how many invitations we have to the hot events…okay, maybe that doesn’t apply to our world right now, but you know what I mean! We can get immediately pulled off course when we feel left out or not good enough. If we don’t have what God says about us firmly anchored in our soul, truth that tells us “we are fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14), we will hit the rocks hiding underneath the surface and get holes in our souls the minute someone says something negative about us. When we let His words to us and about us mean more than the words of the people around us, that’s when we find life and strength. Ask your friends who have been downsized or lost their jobs because of COVID how being anchored to their career has worked out! I confess, that was a huge struggle for me last year when everything I had was canceled. I have definitely had to drop my anchor deeper and deeper into His Word to not get totally blown off course and hit those rocks waiting for me on the shoreline. If this pandemic has taught us anything, it has taught us that our lives can change very quickly. And if we aren’t anchored to His Word and filling our hearts and minds with His truth, we will be blown off course with every changing wind. So what and who are you anchored to, my friend? Do you find yourself drifting with the current and getting off course? Is it time for you to fire up your engine and pull away from the shore so you can drop your anchor again? I encourage you, take a good look at what you are anchored to, because it’s easy to start drifting without even knowing it. And get that anchor connected to His Word so you stay on course. Then when the winds blow and the current tries to pull you out to sea, your anchor of faith will simply dig in deeper and deeper! Hugs and love, Jill