"Fitting out" a ship means putting in everything a ship needs, both to carry passengers and to power the vessel." Stephanie Sabol
The phrase "fitting out the ship" has a spiritual application. All of the work God does for and within you, is meant to provide you with everything you need, both to carry others and to power you, a vessel for the Holy Spirit. For waters of the world are turbulent, and only a skilled navigator and fitted ship can chart them.
The process through which God prepares, stocks, and powers you is less affectionately known as discipline. Discipline is something we naturally resist. Discipline forces us to bend against our will, decide against our preferences, and push beyond our limits. During its process, discipline feels more like punishment than benefit. Yet discipline, strenuous and unpleasant though it is, is a process for which we should be grateful; Hebrews 12:5-6; Proverbs 3:11-12 explain:
"... do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every child whom he receives."If we are to be "fitted out" or, disciplined, by God, we should understand how, why and the way to endure (perhaps even appreciate) the process.
THE SHIP
Every person is a vessel; mind and limbs and entire body work to exert an individual's will in the world. The same is true for a child of God, but there is an emphatic tweak: our mind and limbs and entire body work to exert God's will in the world. We abandon our own, or at least, we try to as, throughout our lives, we submit further to His will. We do so because we trust His above our own. We trust His foresight, we have confidence in His power, and we believe in His purposes over anyone else's.
But if we are truly going to be vessels of the Holy spirit, ships navigating the waters of the world according to His purposes, we need to be built spiritually robust. Just as it would be unpleasant to be hammered, carved and sanded, so can it be unpleasant to be lectured, thwarted, or made to fail.
If God did not love us, He would leave us to our own devices. The end of humanity would be a quick and cruel process done to itself. But He does love us, very much, and if He is to yield the "peaceful fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 11:11)" within us we have to be disciplined. You will recognize discipline by this taste: humble pie. You will recognize discipline by this emotion: shame. You will recognize discipline by this outcome: failure.
None of us like to relive the moments when we were humbled, ashamed, or defeated. But God exploits those moments. He makes full use of them, using our pain and frustration as a site to be surveyed, analyzed, dug into. In such emotionally intense, raw states it is easiest to see the connections between cause and effect, action and reaction and most of all: the futility of living for selfish purposes.
Once we learn how the wrong motivations lead to the wrong decisions and how the wrong decisions lead to the wrong outcomes, it is easier to release our selfish purposes. And sometimes, when we actually do receive the outcome we thought we wanted, we realize it is not what we should have wanted at all. We realize that it does not provide the joy or even contentedness we thought it would. When that happens, it's easier to grab onto the truth that "your Father knows what you need" (Matthew 6:8)" and that maybe you really don't.
That release (of selfish purposes) and that grab (onto truth) are crucial to the ships form, to your form. They are the difference between sinking and staying afloat.
THE WATERS
In scripture, tribulation is often symbolized by water:
- Psalm 69:1-2 Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me.
- Isaiah 43:2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.
- Lamentations 3:54 the waters closed over my head, and I thought I was about to perish.
- Psalm 18:16-17 He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me.
Your relationship with God, your willingness to submit to His discipline, prepares you for the plight of those deep and turbulent waters. If we are to be vessels of the Holy spirit, it simply will not due for us to give up, give in, get angry, or go astray. But without practice, we will give up. Without the process of building strength, you will give in. Without being singed by the flames of anger, we will burn from anger. Without the proper mooring to the philosophy of God, we will go astray.
We have to experience those things in order to extract their essential oils, the elements of them that make us strong and wise in faith, selfless in body and soul. But it requires discipline to utilize those moments; because when you are broken or ashamed, you are reluctant to submit yourself to constructive criticism or to consider consequence a valuable lesson. Because although water gives us life, we are not exactly cognizant or grateful for that as it rushes toward us or threatens to rise above our heads.
You are a ship because you are in the waters; and if you are a ship in the waters, you need to be fitted out. Otherwise, your tribulation will sink you. In character. In spirit. In life. No matter who you are, more than once in your life a wave will go over your head and send you crashing down. That moment will either be an end or a beginning: your demise, or your first day of training.
THE CARGO
It is through our trials that we become stocked with the cargo we need in order to be properly fitted out. Through trials, God provides opportunity to build spiritual muscle, the true strength that is: patience and endurance, courage, character and hope. The most important cargo a ship could carry; the products that persevere us through the waters.
Trials: some are different, many are the same, though caused by different circumstances for each individual. Our trials are the things we have to either cope with or surrender to, the happen within us: our insecurities, our losses, loneliness, sadness and fear. Our temper our greed, our temptation, pride and anxiety. But the weariness, the fainthearted-ness they birth within us, are conquerable.
The loneliness and loss teach us to value people not things, to nourish them and host them well when they come; to build attentive and empathetic relationships. The fear gives us opportunity to learn what we care about enough to choose courage. The sadness encourages us to explore for reprieve from sorrow. The anxiety causes us to inquire of peace and its attainability. The temptation teaches us that we are leashed until we deny it enough to set ourselves free. The insecurity causes us to question the context of our culture and to make corrections. All of those things could snuff us out, but instead let them light a fire. Disciplining ourselves to re-purpose our trial's power in our lives helps us to build the cargo we need to survive any storm that brews in the waters.
We conquer those sea beasts by remembering that as a child of God, there is hope. There is breakthrough. There is purpose. We conquer our trials by remembering that endings are beginnings, if we pray them to be. And that is the most precious cargo of all: faith.
We are ships in the sea, in the world, but in heaven we are God's cargo and He protects us with His life. He prepares us with every skill and piece of wisdom He has. We are made able navigate the choppy waters because we have been supplied with the necessary elements to do so.
Romans 3:3-4 tells us to "glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope." Paul told us to, as children of God, notice a storm brewing on the sea and glory in it. He told us to strengthen our legs, lift up our hands, and to walk straightforward. He wanted us to realize that the love and strength of God within us is more than enough to see a storm and strengthen, as spiritual discipline taught us to do. To be ready, to be brave. Every storm is a chance to be charted; and as a fitted out ship, you can chart it. Trust the process of discipline because each stage produces a new product, a more refined you.
Someone else might see a storm on the horizon and fall. Someone else might find themselves in the midst of a storm and fail. But as a child of God, see a storm and resolve to fight. You've been fitted for the fight.