Stay On Course

I once had a vision that I was in a small sailboat and I was cruising in the misty calm fog with a small crew.  All we had was to rely on the navigator who was not in the boat with us to guide us to our destination.  That vision made me realized that the Navigator was the Spirit in my life.  This week I've been praying for many things, people, and organizations that I am familiar with, extending out to the people that they all serve.  In the end all I wanted was for the Spirit to guide us into the will of the Father and to stay true to what he's brought us to and onward.  The next morning I got an email from a good friend of mine.  I thought for this weeks journal entry I would share what she shared with me.  I took it straight to heart knowing that God has plans and its up to us to follow His commands even in the simple things of daily life.

-your prayer coordinator

Stay the Course

written by Vanyda Kheiv 

an encouragement to her brothers and sisters in Christ. 

This past Sunday, Pastor covered Acts 27. Towards the end, when he said, "Stay the course..." I couldn't help but hear, in my mind, Christian Bale when he played John Connor in "Terminator Salvation" yell to his commander, "STAY THE COURSE AND WE'RE DEAD!! WE'RE ALL DEAD!"

Was it just me?

 I know it's just a line from a movie but it made me think about how it relates to Acts 27 and what Pastor meant. When John Connor said that line to his commander, his order was to let those in captivity on Skynet die. His father, Kyle Reese was aboard that ship. If Kyle Reese died, then John Connor wouldn't be born. If there is no John Connor, there is no resistance against the machines. Therefore..WE'RE ALL DEAD!

In terms of semantics, the denotation of "stay the course" is singular. The natural reality, as we literally see it, is there are numerous courses that we can take to arrive at one particular destination. Or, there's also that idiom or saying, "There's more than one way to skin a cat." It pains me, as a cat owner. to use that phrase. But you know what I mean. It refers to different courses of action or methods to resolve a situation, perform a task, etc. Despite the natural reality of numerous options set before us, in how we approach which course to take or course of action to carry out, the supernatural reality is there is only one, singular course that leads to salvation.

Although John Connor's character defied his commander when he was told to stay the course, the irony of it was the fact that he was the one who stayed the course. He lead those, under his authority, to do the same. His refusal to let those in captivity die was based on his conviction to save humanity, which was the course of action, the mission that the resistance set out to do in the first place.

Even though we are not at war with machines or like in Acts 27, in a shipwreck, there are spiritual battles we face every single day.There are metaphorical shipwrecks whether they are tragic events or streaks of "bad things happening" that we survive from. In Ephesians 6:12-13, it says, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."

So, despite the daily battles, the occasional shipwreck, and whether or not "we're feelin' it"...stay the course. A battle in itself is to deny ourselves the indulgence of comfort and to remain steadfast based on our conviction of Jesus being the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The key is that we have to figure out what our mission is and the role we play in The Church...whether it's CRC or if God specifically, calls us elsewhere to serve His purpose and not our own. To serve His purpose, in itself, should be the point behind what and why we do what we do, regardless of where we are (spiritually and geographically) and where we serve Him in the first place. It requires sacrifice. It means losing our lives in order to find it and to lead others to do the same. It means to be part of the resistance...to resist the the rulers, authorities and powers of this dark world that could so easily lure us away from staying the course, the second things seem to fall apart at the surface.