I have been a boater on Lake Erie most of my adult life. While some people remember the cars they have owned, I remember the four boats I have owned and used with my family.
While all of my boats have been different in such things as the size of hull, beam, and engine horsepower, one critical component on each boat has been the same. Each boat has had a well-functioning compass.
I am a fair-weather boater. Lake Erie can be far from a fair-weather place. So I pay close attention to the daily forecast of wind direction, the wind velocity, and wave conditions. To be sure, while most boaters, myself included, have their stories of being caught on the lake in a pop-up thunderstorm, each storyteller at one point or another relates that the experience is not one they desire to repeat!
But, back to the compass.
Several times over the years predicted boating weather has been favorable; even encouraging. Even when all the predictions have been favorable, unpredictable challenges have occurred which have made my boating on the lake… well, in a word, memorable.
Particularly in mid and late summer a humidity-induced haze can seemingly swallow every distant shoreline and landmark. In such times the most valuable piece of equipment is my boat’s compass.
For instance, while fishing, I have been five or six miles east of Kelley’s Island and ten or so miles north of Huron and Cedar Point. In a matter of minutes, I have become aware of a developing haze. All the visual reference points along the shorelines to the south or west are gone from view. Since there is nothing but open water to the north and east, every direction looks the same. It is time to follow the compass.
In such conditions and without a compass, there is no way to know whether you are piloting the boat North, South, East, or West. Destinations, home port, waypoints – all such things – become lost in the haze. You need the compass to point the way to true North and thus enable you to maintain direction and course. In such conditions only the compass can enable you to have any hope of arriving at your destined port.
This is a helpful analogy for me.
I think that we are living in times when the familiar reference points have become obscured from view. I often feel as if we are floating around in some great haze. True North has become “lost” or at least if not lost, obscured. So as we float around in the haze, true North has become just where we think it is; only our best guess. While we are definitely moving and our engines running, it seems to me that our landmarks as a society, a democratic republic, and as a nation are lost from our sight. As a consequence we are going in ever more troublesome circles.
There are, as there always have been, wonderfully committed, active, soul-centered people involved in the best of things in these seemingly worst of hazy times. But that being said, the haze is deepening. We can all name the deepening haze by all manner of climate change in nature, politics, and for me at least, the church.
Navigating in this haze which surrounds us we must take charge of our boats. While I may not be able to change the weather, I can do what is necessary for me to find home port in all this haze and fog. I can find direction by following my core, spiritual compass.
True North for me is that each of us has been created on purpose. Creation in general and our individual creation are not accidental or only the result of the Big Bang and subsequent, random, evolutionary organization of DNA which has survived a rigorous natural selection. This creation, as well as your creation and mine, is GOOD. (Genesis 1:27,31).
The additional spiritual pole star – my South, so to speak – is that in the midst of life as we now experience it, we are to care for our fellow human beings with the same intentionality, grace, and energy that we care for ourselves. This is our ultimate self-interest for preservation. (Leviticus 19:18, Deuteronomy 6:5, and Matthew 22:39).
These are the poles. All the compass points, the directions for charting the course I take and will take, are in relation to these two poles.
My “East” is marked out by the knowledge that present challenging weather conditions, no matter how bad, pale in comparison to the ultimate fair weather which one day will occur. So, I try to keep on traveling and not become weary in making every effort to be a part of solutions. (Romans 8:18, Galatians 6:9).
My “West” is the absolute assurance that while now I only see a speck of what the geography of life entails, one day I will see it all. My “west” is that while I can only SEE a speck, I AM NOT JUST A SPECK. You are not just a speck, either. One day I will see clearly and know fully. You will, too. So, for now, I will look for evidence in the present haze and fog – as hard as it sometimes is to do so – for what is honorable, just, good, decent, and blessed. (I Corinthians 13:12-13, Philippians 4:8).As a result of having this compass on board my life, no matter the haze, fog, or storm I will find my way safely home. This spiritual North, South, East, and West will guide and guard you as well.