Sailing From Rockport TX to Gulfport MS...Continued

It was day two of our 540 NM journey to Gulfport, MS. The sunrise was beautiful and half a dozen dolphins had come out to play in the wake of our boat. I tried to capture them with the new camera I had acquired but wasn’t having the best luck. Except for glancing up ahead or at the chart plotter in front of me now and then, all of my focus was directed on trying to capture the perfect photo.

After much effort, I finally gave up. That’s when I noticed the dazzling colors and patterns of the water and the way the rising sun sparkled across its surface. That’s also when I unintentionally woke Chris with my exclamation over seeing a large Marlin jumping up out of the water. It was just such an amazing, unexpected thing to see. If I had continued my laser like focus on the dolphins, I would have missed it, and the beauty of my surroundings in those moments would have gone unnoticed.

It made me think about how we sometimes are looking and waiting for God to do something and we are so focused on that one particular thing, that we miss all the other blessings He has occurring all around us, and maybe we tend to wonder where He is and if He considers us at all. Then we grumble and complain instead of counting it all joy as James says we are to do.

I can get like that. I know I am a grumbler and a complainer. The Bible says, in the book of James, that we are to be joyful in the midst of trials. I don’t think he means that we are to rejoice because of the trial, but we are to rejoice because we know that trials spur us into spiritual maturity. We rejoice because we know that God will provide the strength for us to endure. Can you imagine if all the sailing we did was in perfect wind and calm waters and nothing ever went wrong? It might make for enjoyable sailing, but it’s through the trials that we test our mettle, learning and improving and becoming better sailors.

You know this is true if you are a parent too. As a parent, I don’t want my children to suffer. I would like to remove every obstacle, every hardship or burden from my children’s paths. But if I did, (as if I could), how difficult it would be for them to function as grown-ups in the face of adult problems. I’m preaching to myself here. Struggles are necessary; the experiences of victory and success in the face of trials, and even the picking yourself up after failure, are part of the learning experiences that help children mature into capable adults.

In much the same way, I believe that trials are necessary for us to grow and mature spiritually so that we are able to stand strong in our faith till the end, even in the face of tribulation or persecution. It doesn’t take a strong faith to believe God is good and benevolent when things are peachy, but it takes a strong faith to see that God is good when we are suffering, especially when we don’t understand the why. The victory we have in small trials, picking ourselves up when we fail, and learning to rely on God when we don’t understand the why’s, teach us how to stand firm in the face of bigger challenges that will inevitably come.

I decided right then and there that I would choose to take note of all the blessings along the way on this trip and not to give into grumbling or complaining about the things beyond my control. I would count all these little trials joy and rejoice in the fact that we were maturing as sailors. I would have faith in my heavenly Father to strengthen me to endure whatever came my way, rejoicing in the knowledge that the end result would be a step forward in spiritual maturity.

When Chris woke up and was ready to take the helm I quickly and sincerely apologized for my less than pleasant attitude toward yesterday’s night duty before heading below to sleep.