Sailing through life …
One thing I love to do is go sailing.
I’m not a trained sailor, but there’s something about being on the water that captivates me. I’ve had the chance to sail on San Francisco bay as well as the ocean waters along Hawaii, Fiji, and Jamaica, and I’ve enjoyed a cruise along the Mexican Riviera.
In all the times I’ve gone sailing, not once did I board a boat and then the skipper leave our journey to chance and let the winds take us wherever they would blow. The journey was directed by the skipper by the many choices he made in the handling of his boat.
While it may seem obvious that a skipper needs to guide his boat, how much more obvious is it that we need to provide direction to our lives. Yet many of us actually leave much of the journey of our lives to “wherever the wind blows.”
Here’s a simple reality: Without a thoughtful, prayerful, and purposeful strategy for your life, you’re left to be driven by circumstance.
Not every strategy takes us where we want to go, but without one that is thought out, prayed through, and rooted in our purpose for living, the journey and destination of our lives will be at the mercy of wherever our circumstances take us. Like a boat without the direction of a skipper, a life without a strategy usually eventually winds up as wreckage on the rocks.
Have you chartered a specific course for your life? Is your life on course with your strategy, or have you allowed the winds of circumstances to blow you off course?
Scotty
October 2, 2010 at 10:36 pm
Sometimes I find myself stuck at the dock.
But yes, as you put so well here Scotty, it's so much better to start off with a thoughtful, prayerful and purposeful strategy. And then be sure to allow God to tweak the course as we go. Just because the direction I start off with isn't always 100%.
But it's a lot easier to steer a boat when it's in open water than when it's tied to the dock!
October 2, 2010 at 10:51 pm
Good insights Larry, thanks for sharing. God helps us in correcting our course as we sail through life, but we have to set sail first. The first courageous step is untethering from the dock!