Life in a Dinghy > As we continue watching all the storms around us escalating, I have to wonder how much violence is required for something to be technically considered a civil war? As we’ve seen Ice Agents assaulted and have to wear mask to hide their identity, or their family could be threatened, where does this go next? But the world’s coming perfect storm is not what I’m here to write about today. I want to share my own perfect storm of recent days that has me feeling like I lost the sailboat and escaped in a survival dinghy! Row, row, row, my boat! Wearily down the stream! Or upstream!

If you’ve read much of these articles, you are familiar with my Rowboat, Motorboat, and Sailboat analogy. It is my perspective, and a perspective I always try to maintain, that the person walking in the Spirit with God is the Sailboat person, living a life at sea, empowered by the wind in their sails, filled with the Spirit of God.

This leaves the Motorboat and Rowboat to represent us when we get a little too carnal, or we simply are not a spiritual person. The Motorboat has man-made power and loves to rev his motor. These people are more intellectual, shall we say. The Rowboat is a more physical person, content with keeping things simple, shall we say. Anyway, the goal is to be the Sailboat because as I like to say, all Sailboats go to heaven.

HOWEVER, the best laid plans of mice and men. In case I have not shared enough about no one is a perfect master of the sea or their own spirit, and a perfect storm develops, even someone like a Billy Graham or Apostle Paul, I’m sure, can find themselves spiritually sinking and jumping in the dinghy! And then comes endless days of waiting for rescue, or sight of land, while you try to survive your storm. Much to my embarrassment, I have been in such a time. And how did this storm develop? These storms are very sneaky, you know.

I really hate it when I allow this to happen. When I fail to see it coming, or fail to somehow change the course enough to avoid. I have managed to sail through many storms in life and not lose my sailboat ways in Christ, but this last month? Oh my. And I’m physically exhausted. I was on verge of spiritually exhausted, but certain obligations have forced me to “get my act together”! NOW! And thank my Lord for that.

Here’s the deal. The Sailboat life requires some “time”. Spiritual disciplines require time. Sailing requires more time than a Motorboat. When life events and “needs” somehow sneak in on you and life becomes rushed and overwhelming; LOOK OUT! And it can happen to anyone. I dare say that Jesus Himself would be the only person who has ever lived and never lost His Sailboat ways.

So… I was sailing along doing perfectly fine, I thought. All of my activities and obligations had a flowing balance. I had time to start my days right, like a good Captain of a Sailboat should. But then… Hhmmm. My family of five grown children planned a family get-together in a rented house in Tennessee for a week. That’s all good, right? Well, actually, what came first was a grandson graduating High School in Georgia, and I live in Indiana. Of course Grandma and Grandpa was going to be there! And I would do it again. But that was only the first strain on the ship.

Then we realized the family vacation was a “no dogs allowed” situation! Oh oh. didn’t see that coming. Man the torpedoes! We had a small building in which the dogs could be fed and watered, and have access to outside, for many days at a time. And my sister could check on them a couple times, but for that to work, this building needed a very reliable fence! I mean, 25 four by four posts buried 3 feet deep through multiple tree roots and stone. (Mostly done manually. Our cheap electric posthole digger could only handle so much. And only reached 2 feet down. Tree roots was out of the question! Like to broke my wrists, several times.)

The fence we would stretch also needed to be into the ground at least 5 to 6 inches, because my beagle has proven her ability to dig under and squeeze under any normal fence. This means I have been digging by shovel at least 300 feet of trenching. We’ve put in two gates. Multiple cross braces at any bend or turn. It has been a huge undertaking with time ticking by, the heat rising to heat factors over 100, at almost 70 years of age, and this ship has begun to crumble! (My wife helped or hindered as much as she could. Bless her heart.) But I love her company. Misery loves company.

You see, this sudden need of a fence by such and such date, was suddenly added to all the other normal stuff. Family birthday parties. Church events. My wife always does a big 4th of July event, but this year would be at our farm for first time! Much preparations. I think you are probably getting the picture.

We lost our renter too, and now need to sell the Indy house. In the meantime, I’m mowing and upkeeping two properties. I did not want the renter to move out. He just did! The storm kept perfecting to the point of no return! We got to sail through this baby! Hang on! Rough seas ahead! For who knows how long? Where did all this come from? What can we throw overboard? And I have thrown some things overboard.

But today…we finally got caught up enough… for me to look around at my wreckage… my soul…and realize I somehow ended up in the dinghy! But thanks be to God, a break in the clouds came just in time. And my need to write at least one article a week here, has given me the motivation to get myself back into the Sailboat saddle before I wreck everything. And tomorrow we have our Men’s Group. I have the message and it looks like a good one for sure. I’ve spent this whole day in the Spirit, reviving my soul. But again, these things are like anchors for me, to make sure I don’t get too far away from the life I love living, no matter what planet earth throws at me.

A perfect real life example of this analogy is a lady by name of Emily Harper. I watched a Youtube documentary about a sea journey she attempted. She was very experienced and skilled at sailing. She had done many hours of preparations. Days and weeks even. She was sailing from California to Hawaii. But what happened to her was not her fault. Not really. Blame our materialistic society if you will. The oceans have become littered with so much pollution, including steel cargo containers! Just like the Robert Redford movie.

A storm came in, and it was two a.m. in the morning, in the night! Darkness! They said the only way she might have been able to avoid the container was if she had a very expensive radar system. There you go, you just need more money! But when her ship and that container collided, it threw her against the wall, fracturing her arm. The ship hull fractured too. Water was pouring in.

She tried every trick in the book to save her ship, even with the injured arm! She even dropped a sail over the side of the boat in hopes it would press against the fracture and slow the leak enough for the pumps to maintain. Nope. No such luck. The dinghy became her only option, as she watched her home and ship sink out of sight. Then came two days in a dinghy, hoping she would be rescued. My steel container was a family vacation with no dogs allowed. That’s the large object that struck me, along with other smaller things that could have been managed.

Being the “watchman” sort of person I am, I could not help but think of how her story is such a picture of today. We’ve become so materialistic we are creating a very dangerous world, and the simple enjoyment of sailing, can become a deadly activity due to human carelessness. Or human emotions! To be a Sailboat person today might get you hated and attacked by some of the very people I spoke of earlier. How much violence is needed before it is a civil war? If it’s not already here, it’s coming! You may not be a Tesla, but are you a Sailboat?

Now… a heads up. Things continue heating up all around us. Our planet’s perfect storm is still perfecting. Many people have already suffered devastating loses in these early storms and events. As a watchman in a tower I cannot shout “all is well” when I look out of my tower and see such storms coming. I would be failing God at my job. I don’t mean to be doom and gloom, but if doom and gloom is what is coming and I don’t blow the trumpet? Woe be unto me.

We will be speaking more of these things soon. But know this, A. I. plays a big part in all that is to come, and when Trump said it cannot be stopped, I’m convinced he is so right. Remember all those Tech Geeks with him? And now much money is being sent that way. Money is our answer to everything.

Our society has devolved to such a point that we cannot say no to poison! If the poison taste good enough, we will keep eating it even though it will eventually be our demise. Don’t be that Motorboat. Get away from man’s power and seek God while we still can, because the night comes when no man can work! A solid prayer life is the best radar! Don’t get too busy to live in your God-given spiritual disciplines. If you find yourself in the dinghy, don’t stay there!

None of us are perfect and our Lord loves us anyway. God looks in our heart. When He sees we truly desire to be a Sailboat Captain, He will make sure we succeed, no matter how many dinghy days we may need to learn our lessons, and stop being so dinghy. LOL.

So… I’m tired of the ways of this dinghy. God has restored my Sailboat and I’m climbing back in. Hopefully a little wiser now. The fence is almost done. The vacation is only 9 days away. Yikes! But the hard and fast winds are beginning to slow, and we have lived to sail another day. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Thank you, heavenly Father. Please forgive my dinghy ways. And empower me by your Holy Spirit to be a spiritual battleship upon these 7 Seas. Amen.