Sorry this post has come a little bit late, it has been a busy few days. The ship has spent 4 days in port, so it has been a good opportunity to let our hair down and relax a little bit. It's always good to get into port, especially after being at sea for a few weeks. There are major bonuses to being in port, firstly you can escape
off the ship for a bit. You can go shopping and stock up on all the essentials, but most importantly to me, I can get on the internet and FaceTime with home. Usually mail gets to the ship as well, and everyone is always happy to receive mail from loved ones.
The port we visited is not exactly the most exciting place to visit, but at least we had the chance to have a bit of a rest. I have visited this port before and there is not a lot in the local area, so I only left the dockyard once. That was to go out for a day's SCUBA diving. I dived here last year, so I was really excited and
looking forward to it, as the visibility should have been perfect. At this time of year there is also a good chance of seeing sharks. However the wind picked up the day before we went diving, causing a massive
swell to come in, this kicked up the seabed and caused the visibility under the water to only be a few meters.
There were still good things to be seen though, there were quite a few massive shoals of fish, a stingray, some turtles and I even got a bit to close for comfort to a sea snake! (Anyone who knows me
will know how much I hate snakes!) But sadly although I am sure they were about the visibility was too bad to see any sharks. I am always amazed when I am diving at the differences in all the animals below the
sea, there really is so much life down there. The detail in this creation God has made is amazing, and I am just blown away that the God who created all these animals and underwater life also created me, and more than that, wants to have a relationship with me.
I managed to get two dives in, both were around the same massive rock which comes up out of the sea like a small island. The first dive was simple enough, descend to about 12m and then swim around
the rock, exploring all the crevices and looking into the cracks in the rock to see what was lurking there. It was quite an easy dive, with the current gently guiding you around the rock, so the swimming was nice and
easy. To be honest it was more like drifting that swimming. Ideal after a hard legs work out in the gym that morning!
The second dive was totally the opposite, after about a gap of an hour in between the dives the tide had turned. Shortly after entering the water I realised this was not going to be as easy and gentle as the first dive. We descended back to 12m and set off, it was apparent instantly that the current coming around the rock was very strong. It took a lot of hard work to move forward, and if you stopped kicking even for a few seconds you would find you had instantly been pushed back a few meters. The strong current was also stirring up the
sea bed bringing the visibility even lower.
I actually started thinking about this blog and what I could write in this weeks post when down at 12m. (Well it wasn't as if I could see a lot apart from sand and the flippers of my dive partner who was about a foot in front of me!)
Kicking like mad just to move slightly forward in very poor visibility made me think that sometimes that's what our whole lives can seem like. I'm sure most of us can and have felt like that at times. When everyone and everything seems to be against us it can be like we are fighting against a strong current of problems and worries. But worse than that these strong currents can kick up sand and cause our visibility of God and his plan for our lives to be obscured. I know over the past few years there have been times when I have felt like that.
There are plenty of examples of people feeling like that in the Bible. I should imagine Noah must have felt like that when he was being ridiculed for building his Ark. Moses definitely thought he was fighting the current of the Pharaoh and the Egyptian nation, and even argued outright with God that he was not the right man for the job. And mentioning Job! Look at all the hard times he faced, even his own friends turned on him, accusing him and telling him that his suffering must be because of some sin he had committed.
The story of Joseph is well known by many. He really had a strong current against him. He was sold into slavery by his own jealous brothers. Thrown into prison for years, and all the time he was innocent. In that position it would have been easy to blame God and ask him why he was letting such things happen. But he did not loose his faith, he did not blame God and he trusted that his suffering was all part of Gods eventual plan for his life. And just look how things turned out. He ended up the second most powerful man in all of Egypt, and saved his people from starvation.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say that life will instantly be amazing as soon as we become Christians. In fact the opposite is true, the Bible often tells us that we will face trials and persecution for our faith, and in some places today people are even facing death just for being a Christian.
I think we need to be more like Joseph and Job at times. When life seems to be against us we need to trust in God, not turn from him. We need to understand that sometimes we will have to suffer or face persecution for Gods ultimate plan for our lives to be fulfilled. At times when the current of life is against us we can't let God and his plan for us be obscured or forgotten. We need to hang in there and trust that the tide will turn and the currents will change. Because God is always there and his love remains constant for us, no matter how the conditions around us seem to suggest that he has left us or has stopped caring for us. Because he has assured us that he will always be with us, as we can see in Joshua 1:9. Which is just one of the times in the Bible God promises he will always be with us;
Joshua 1:9
"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be
frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you
wherever you go."
The Sailing Salvationist
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