Boat Building

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:28; 31;35-39, ESV).

In his book Celebrations of Life, Rene Dubos says that we fear change more today than ever before, and for less reason. “The reason you fear change is because you are afraid that you will be worse off as a result. No one fears change that implies improvement. For example, if you learned that you were going to have to change your life-style because you had just won a lottery, this is not the kind of change that you would avoid or anticipate with dread. It is change that implies unpleasant surprises that you fear and become anxious about because it causes you to feel that you have lost a certain amount of control in that part of your life.”

I have often said that fear of the future is the greatest thief of our joy and peace in the present. Change is the tool that the devil uses to tempt us to embrace that fear. Boat builders know that the deeper the keel of a sailing vessel, the more stable it will be in storms, squalls and gusts of wind. The same holds true for us. The deeper our keel, or the stabilizing factors in our lives, the less likely it is that we will be blown over, or off course, when unexpected change occurs. Here are some practical things for you to do so that you can build your boat with a deep keel:

1. First, set some goals. You can deepen your keel and increase your stability by setting big goals for yourself and making clear, written plans for their accomplishment. Goals enable you to control the direction of change. With goals, change becomes planned and deliberate, instead of random and haphazard. Goals assure that the changes that take place in your life are primarily self-determined and self-directed. With clear, specific goals, the changes that take place will tend to be positive and move you toward something that you want to achieve, rather than blow you off course.

2. Second, stay focused. But if you set clear goals for your work, for your family life and for your personal development, then no matter what happens, you can concentrate your thinking on your goals and take a long-term view of your current circumstances. You can, in effect, rise above the challenges of the moment.

3. Third, develop resilience. This is the most difficult of the steps. It requires a clear idea of where you're going and what you want to accomplish. This will allow you to bounce back rather than to break. You will develop what is called the "hardy personality" and become the type of person who is resistant to the negative emotions that affect people who have no goals or direction. You must embrace the truth that change is a reality. Acceptance of this keeps your mind calm and positive. William James said, "The starting point in dealing with any difficulty is to be willing to have it so." The minute you accept that a change has occurred, and that you can't cry over spilled milk, you become more capable of dealing with the change and turning it to your advantage.

W. Clement Stone, the founder of Combined Insurance Company of America, is famous for his attitude of being an "inverse paranoid." He is convinced that everything that happens is part of a conspiracy to help him to be more successful. Whenever something unexpected occurs, he immediately says, "That's good!" and then looks into the situation to find out exactly what is good about it. Listen again to the Scripture: “God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”