Aboard at a Ship's Helm

Aboard, at a ship’s helm,
A young steersman, steering with care.
A bell through fog on a sea-coast dolefully ringing,
An ocean-bell—O a warning bell, rock’d by the waves.

O you give good notice indeed, you bell by the sea-reefs ringing,
Ringing, ringing, to warn the ship from its wreck-place.
For, as on the alert, O steersman, you mind the bell’s admonition,
The bows turn,—the freighted ship, tacking, speeds away under her gray sails,
The beautiful and noble ship, with all her precious wealth, speeds away gaily and safe.

But O the ship, the immortal ship! O ship aboard the ship!
O ship of the body—ship of the soul—voyaging, voyaging, voyaging.

by Walt Whitman

Meditations of a Voyage

Meditations of a Voyage
Unknown

The fish jumping in the morning light, like silver daggers flying.
The fluffy clouds in morning flight give way to another night dying.
The decks awash with salty spray, the sails are full and pulling.
Another sign of a tradewinds day and the "Morning Winds" keep going.
As the ocean reflects the Azure sky, and my long night's watch is past
The sailor asks the question why?
Why did I leave my loves to sail behind the mast?
This voyage around the world has taken me to unknown shores
God's greatness He has shown me, by opening my uncharted doors.

The Set of the Sails

One ship drives east, and another west
With the self-same winds that blow;
'Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales,
That decides the way to go.

Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate,
As they voyage along through life;
'Tis the will of the soul
That decides its goal,
And not the calm or the strife.

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Paralyzed with fear...

"For the truth is that I already know as much about my fate as I need to know. The day will come when I will die. So the only matter of consequence before me is what I will do with my allotted time. I can remain on shore, paralyzed with fear, or I can raise my sails and dip and soar in the breeze."

- Richard Bode, First you have to row a little boat

Straight Paths

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5-6

We are curious creatures. We have been created in the image of God, yet we often act like there was no God at all. Large amounts of our time are spent looking after ourselves, by ourselves. And no wonder. In the past, society has educated us to be independent and self-sufficient. We are blind to the fact that this is an illusion. Part of he truth is that we must really on each other. But even society as a whole cannot exist on it’s own.

One of the great myths of our time is that education will bring freedom and peace to the world. Education will solve all our problems. With education, even AIDS can be defeated. Man’s great learning passed on to man, the great humanist endeavor, while having noble intentions, will ultimately fail as a savior.

God has made us in his image, a fact that needs to turn us to seeing things from his perspective. Our great gift of reason is to be informed by information outside of ourselves. In the world around us there are two great books, as Galileo once said: the book of creation and the book of the scriptures. Our life in this world must certainly include delighting ourselves with the study of of the world. But even the world, was created by God. The life we live was created by God. And so it is reasonable, that our life and our life lived passionately looking at the world around us needs a humble attitude of seeking God through “acknowledging him in all our ways. Then we’ll know how to walk in this world.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

--Robert Frost