Anchored in the Storm
Key Question: How do I face challenges with adaptability, perseverance, and hope?
I don’t like adversity. I don’t really want to ever “rock the boat” and I am certainly not like the person I once heard say, “I don’t rock the boat… I jump up on the side and turn the boat over and see who swims out!” Yeah, I had kind of a hard time getting along with him… it was as though our personalities were opposites. He thrived on something that I really don’t like at all!
A few weeks ago, I was able to take my grandkids fishing and snapped this picture. The water is pretty deep where these boats are “parked” on Lake Texoma. And even though the water is relatively warm, I think everyone’s idea of a good day is catching fish… certainly not turning the boat over to see who swims out!
Personalities aside, I have had to deal with adversities (notice the plural…more than one), as all of us have at one time or another. When adversities and conflict come, we tend to either fight, flight or flow.
We can FIGHT adversity like the one fellow by turning the boat over. I am not speaking of making more adversity by screaming false accusations and deliberately making more adversity in the hope that our own faults or failures will somehow get overlooked in all the noise. Okay maybe I am… maybe I still have a few scars from some of those adversities that became battles?
We can “take FLIGHT” and run away from the adversity. However, when we run away, we may find that the next job, the next relationship, the next family, the next church… has the same or similar, or maybe even worse adversity. Sometimes the only thing that changes are the names and faces behind the adversity.
Another option is to just “go with the FLOW.” When we do this once it is easier to repeat and make our life one that is dominated by simply taking the path of least resistance, always looking for a way out. If we always take the path of least resistance even Google Maps might have a hard time getting us back on track.
If neither fight, flight or flow are good options, what are we to do with adversity? I think Respond is the correct answer.
Reaction vs. Response
In chapter one of his book “Six Hours One Friday” Max Lucado describes a time when he and some fellow college students lived in a houseboat in Florida. Adversity was on the horizon in the form of Hurricane David. David was coming straight for them. Their reaction was to tie their live-in piece of floating real-estate paradise to the biggest trees within reach with the strongest ropes they could find until their little craft looked as if she’d been caught in a spider’s web.
Then came “Phil, the Salty Old Sailor.” He took one look and said something like, “Boys, tie her to land and you’ll regret it. Those trees are gonna get eaten by the ‘cane. Your only hope is to anchor deep in four different locations, leave plenty of slack in your anchor ropes and pray for the best.”
Their response was to take his advice, even though it was counter intuitive. After all, Phil was rumored to have ridden out more than one hurricane. Their reaction could easily have ended in tragedy. Their response based on knowledge and wisdom, along with Hurricane David changing course, saved their boat. (“Six Hours One Friday” by Max Lucado, page 14,15)
Though I have never “ridden out a hurricane,” my life has had its storms of adversity.
So how do we respond to adversity? First, realize the difference between “React” and “Respond.” When the doctor whacks my knee with his little hammer my foot kicks. That is a reaction… I don’t tell my foot to kick, it’s almost like I am watching someone else’s foot kick.
When my doctor writes a prescription to help whatever is ailing me, I go to my pharmacy, tell them my birthdate, give them some money, take my pills home and follow the instructions on when and how many pills to swallow. That is my response for whatever “adversity” that is happening in my body. Get the picture? Yes, responding to adversity will cost me something, and might even be hard to swallow, but I get through the adversity to healing, and healing is the goal when adversity comes our way.
“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies your power to choose your response. In your response lies your growth and freedom.”
Where are you anchored?
In the analogy of the houseboat the “Salty Old Sailor” said to anchor deep at four points. I make no apologies when I say that my main anchor is God. My next anchor is my family, although I may not say that enough. My third anchor is my church. (My church in the sense that I belong to my church, my church doesn’t belong to me. “My Church” has changed down through the years, but I have always had a “my church” with only brief periods between “my churches.”) My fourth anchor is my friends, including my “work-family” friends.
I have had occasion to visit with several people who were at the very end of their life. I have heard people who apparently had their anchor in their wealth. I have met others who had no anchor but just drifted through life. I have spoken with some who anchored their lives in friends or family. I have heard some lament that their wealth was gone. Others spoke of broken relationships with their families and friends that had let them down by reacting instead of responding to adversities in their relationships. And the drifter had no one to grieve his death… no anchor at all.
I have also witnessed many who had anchored their lives in God as He is presented in His word, the Bible, and died with a smile on their face, not always literally but just like the saying goes, “just passed away.” By far the most peaceful deaths that I have witnessed have been those who had all four anchors firmly placed… their God, their family, their church, and their friends.
We have had and are going to have adversities in our lives. Do we fight it to the very end only to find that one adversity leads to another? Do we run away? Remember… you can run but you can’t hide. Or do we just go with the flow and let the adversities take us wherever they will?
Chaplaincy expert, Dr. Naomi Paget says that there are three parts to the solution for every problem (adversity);
There is God’s part…
There is Their part…
There is My part.
I know that God is going to do His part. I can only do my part. I can’t do their part nor God’s part. In every adversity, I pledge to do my part, I will neither fight, flight nor flow… but I will respond. I can do my part because all four of my anchors are deep. Adversities are coming… where are you anchored… will your anchors hold?