"When the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their desire, putting out to sea, they sailed close by Crete. But not long after, a tempestuous head wind arose, called Euroclydon." Acts 27:13-14
It began a difficult journey: a ship bound for Rome, and the apostle Paul bound in chains. Paul had been apprehended for preaching God's word. Paul's scripture-based preaching infuriated the Pharisees and Sadducees, two sects which denied the resurrection of Jesus. Fearful of their loss in power, as Paul's preaching was converting many away from their doctrine, they sought to capture and kill Paul. They accused him of sedition (noun. conduct or speech inciting or causing people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch).
Paul's Roman citizenship meant that his captors had to hold his trial in Rome (Acts 25:10-11). Not only did this preserve Paul's life, his supposed crimes might have gotten him killed in Jerusalem, but would not qualify for death in Rome, but it also fit neatly into God's plan. God had previously informed him that He intended Paul to be in Rome: "the Lord stood by him and said, 'Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome'" (Acts 23:11).
And so they set out for Rome, but the waters were tumultuous and dangerous. It was immediately apparent to Paul that the voyage would result in disaster: the loss of the cargo and possibly the lives of those on the ship. But the centurion (commander) decided to take the advice of the helmsman rather than that of Paul.
They sailed right into the Euroclydon winds, a cyclical, tempestuous wind. Control of the ship was lost as it tossed in the sea; the crew did all they could to keep it afloat. Days passed of the fight to stay alive. Storm clouds blocked the sun and stars and stifled the hope of the men on the ship. As the winds and waters continued to beat down on them and their ship, no longer did they believe they would survive.
Meanwhile, Paul appealed to God through abstinence. If the journey was to be survived, Paul knew that it would be by the Hand of God. Paul's fast allowed him to review the situation, reflect on the decisions made that led to it, and hear with clarity God's plan of restoration out from it. From here, the journey documented in scripture helps us to survive the Euroclydon winds in our own lives.
- NEITHER SUN NOR STARS
Hopelessness and defeat are perhaps the most able to extinguish a person's faith. Sometimes the darkness of the storms in our lives are so comprehensive that we lose sight and even remembrance of the light. The crew on the ship were not like Paul. They followed the advice of men rather than the plan of God. Their rejection of God's plan may have been inadvertent but the result was the same.
Sometimes our desire to do something or for something to be done is so fierce that we ignore common sense in favor of impatience. Like the men on the ship, we have it in our minds that we must be certain places at certain times. Things to do. People to meet. Money to make. Prospects to take. We want all of it to occur on a timely schedule, a schedule in accordance with our impatience rather than God's plan.
Paul presented the men on the ship with a choice: wait and have a smooth voyage, go and possibly lose your life to a difficult one. They chose difficult, and so often do we. But that sort of thinking propels us directly into cyclical winds too. We go around and around making the same mistakes, beating back the same fierce seas, desperate to stay afloat until we finally lose the hope that its even possible anymore.
The absence of sun and stars made it impossible for the crew to navigate the ship. They were tossed, lost and without hope. Which is a place many of us find ourselves to be in at times. Distress causes us to lose all ability to navigate the sometimes-rough waters of circumstance and emotion. Feelings of rejection, hopelessness, isolation, fear, anger, and impatience cause to behave erratically. That erratic behavior directly contradicts God's promises to us:
Rather than rejected we are chosen by Him, Ephesians 1:4. There is no such thing as hopelessness for a child of God, within the kingdom of God, hope is in constant supply, Malachi 3:10. We cannot be isolated from the presence or promise of God, Matthew 28:20.
That erratic behavior directly contradicts God's instruction given to us:
Do not fear, John 14:27. Do not be angry, Ephesians 4:26-27. Wait on the Lord, Psalm 27:14.
Extraordinarily, God has provided the emotional and practical instructions on how to survive the storm. Sometimes, in order to actually apply them to our behavior, we need to lighten the ship.
- LIGHTENING THE SHIP
Paul knew what to do in that darkness. Paul knew that he would make it to Rome because God had told him he would. Paul's advice and prayer and fasting was for the purpose of the preservation of the people with him. They were sinking. What do we do when we are sinking? We toss out the things that are causing us to sink. We remove from our ship, life, the things causing the water to weight us down. Paul did this through a fast. Sometimes a fast is about food, but other times a fast is the jettison of distractions. Secular distractions: attitudes, activities and other things that have no religious or spiritual basis.
The world is full of secular distractions. The attainment of power and celebrity are cultivated by cultures around the world. The desire for control and admiration distracts us from giving and humility. The abundance and attainability of material wealth induces a desperate want of things. Our value of the material causes us to undervalue the actual substance of life. We corrupt the even the biosphere we rely on to exist in order to make and buy and have and use things. We neglect others' basic human rights and needs to pursue our own agendas, secure our own borders, protect our own reputation, clear our own day, have our own fun, claim our own rights and needs.
And so sometimes we need to jettison the things that perpetuate in our lives the distractions of our culture: the social media and music, biased news sources, commercialism and celebrity. We need to clear our lives of the distractions which cause the cloud coverage that blocks the sun and stars. The hope and the lighthouse that is God. We need to learn to be more aware of our susceptibility to the things our world says we should want.
God is able to strengthen us. His love and instruction render us less vulnerable to the desperate desire of filling our bodies, souls and lives with those corrosive distractions. We need to clear the space, we need to jettison those things.
- TO TAKE NOURISHMENT
And then we need to be filled in. Once we have thrown overboard the distractions, we need to fill ourselves with something ordered and solid. We need meat and bread, that is: the deep and thorough word of God. Paul encouraged the crew to eat: "Therefore I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival..." Indeed this is for your survival. God urges us to stop ingesting empty calories. To stop taking in the secular world as though it could ever possible sustain us.
Our souls need actual, spiritual nourishment. Things and fame and vanity are empty. The fruit of impatience is unsatisfactory and insufficient. Like Paul, fast the distractions and then take the bread. Live with gratitude for the One who pointed out the problem and then solved it.
Paul cautioned that only those who remained on the ship would survive. The people who decided to solve their problems on their own would fail. God has capabilities that we do not; the impossible for us is possible for Him, Luke 18:27. The meaning of this is that we cannot leave the kingdom of God and expect to thrive or even survive. It is God's path that leads to life and safety and blessing. We cannot just abandon ship (pun definitely intended) and expect to be nourished. All along God's path are the fruit and meat that nourish us. Away from from God's path, we might sustain ourselves but God has bigger plans than for us to be merely sustained. He has plans for us to live, thrive and survive.
We must throw the junk out and fill ourselves with love and patience, humility and compassion. Easy as it is to give in to our cravings and binge on our temptations, we have to train, spiritually, until we are stronger than that impulse. The impulse to let loose our anger, feed our desire, act on our impatience. It is the nourishment that God provides which grows within us the muscle subdue the things, people and emotions that have power over us.
God will get you to where you need to be. The storms become irrelevant when you choose God as your helmsman, the One to navigate your ship. Your life. You may not, at times, see the sun or stars. You may feel hopeless, but you must remember that God is the light. God provides the hope. Jettison the distractions and the clouds with dissipate, the sun and stars will be visible once again.