If you've had the chance to see a sight like this perhaps you've noticed something about the ropes used to tie off those boats to their anchors. On calm days they lay slack and can be hanging in the water straight down from the front of the boat. With a bit of a breeze the ropes pick up a slow curve from anchor to the bow of the boat.
If you were to go back to view those same boats during a storm with strong winds you'd see those ropes pulled tight and straight. Or, if the winds were gusty, you'd see the ropes jerking taught and pulling on the boat against the violence of the wind and waves.
When a storm like this comes, with wind howling and waves rolling, it isn't the size or cost or beauty of the boat that will keep it from trouble. It is the sureness of the anchor that matters. Any anchor that doesn't hold in that marina will expose that boat to being grounded, dashed upon the rocks, capsized, or crashing in to other boats.
So it is with anxious souls. When things are going well in life, "when peace like a river attendeth thy way" we can take for granted or even forget our anchors. We can assume that the "anchors" for our souls are sure and sound because they have not been tested. It is often the storms of life that prove the worth of our anchors.
Many people in this world have been dismayed in times of trouble, sorrow, and strife when they realize they have anchored to something that is not sure. I am convinced that much of the current cultural vitriol comes from a place of fear and doubt and an existential angst arising from souls that are not anchored to anything that is truly sure and sound.
For those who struggle with anxiety this problem creates even greater stress. This is where anxiety, both in its clinical and more general sense, create "wind and waves" that test the sureness of anchors. Everyday life can feel stormy for the anxious soul, and our anchors either prove secure and worthy of the trust we've given them or they come loose showing they were not of value for our hearts and minds.
Anxiety has left me feeling tossed about and struggling under the deluge of waters at times. But I have also felt the tug from the rope of faith anchored in Christ. It sometimes can even be painful to have anxiety creating "sorrows like sea billows" that pull so violently on that rope and anchor. By God's grace I have always found that Christ is more than worthy as an anchor for my soul.
For anyone reading who does not yet follow Christ I want to ask how sure are you in the anchors for your soul? Will they hold for the storms and troubles that life throws at all of us? Will they hold for eternity or are they man made thoughts that are as likely to perish within a decade as within a millennia? Do you have a history of drifting or changing beliefs and moral sentiments that mirror the cultural moment?
These questions are worth asking of anything we put our hopes and allegiances in. I've asked these questions of my own hope and trust in Christ and have always found my anchor to be steadfast and sure. If you don't have good answers to these questions consider the words of the hymns and words below and the surety of God expressed therein.
Two well known hymns have been great reminders for me of where I am anchored in the midst of my anxious storms: "It is well with my soul" and "My hope is built on nothing less". I want to close this post with the middle verses of "My hope is built on nothing less" as an encouragement for those anxious Christians who are reading.
When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.
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