(Photo credit: Laura Ann Guerrier)
As followers of Jesus, we must be righted.
Many a ship sailing upon the sea has been tossed by the waves so that the ship will dip wildly to one side or the other. What a relief it must be for those aboard when the water is calm once more and the ship has been righted: fully level and upright, moving in the correct intended direction again. If a ship starts to list, that means it takes on water and begins to tilt to one side. If the source of water intake can be stopped early and a water log can be somehow drained, perhaps the ship can be saved. But many ships have gone down after they listed too far, never to be righted again.
The modern follower of Christ, especially in the west, is surrounded by cultural influences which urge us to “follow your heart” and claim that “my heart can’t possibly lie.” Yet God’s word clearly states otherwise. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” And 1 John 3:18-20 says, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”
If we do not have a heart being redeemed by Christ, we have nothing higher to guide us and no greater purifying filter through which to view life circumstances, emotional responses, personal choices, and inevitable pain. But when we start to desire His leadership in our lives, we want to trust Him more than we trust our fickle, tossed — and even listing — heart.
While we yet live in this world, in bodies still limited and broken, with souls being sanctified, we will wrestle with this.
But with our eyes on Jesus, we will see a truer reflection of how things really are. Then, we will come through each small and big storm of life to the peace of smooth waters and a righted ship.
Dear friends, trust Jesus to know and steer your heart.
And be righted.