“That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;” (Ephesians 4:14). There are two main forces that act on ships sailing across the ocean. THe main one that springs to mind when thinking specifically about sailboats is the wind. After all, the whole point of sails is to catch the wind. When the wind is blowing in the direction that the ship wants to go, this can be a powerful force for good in propelling the ship towards its destination. But the wind doesn’t always blow a ship directly towards its goal. If we go through life with our sails fully raised all the time, then we will be at the mercy of whatever wind comes our way. If we merely believe and put our trust indiscriminately into every thought that flits through our head, we will be dragged back and forth across the sea and sooner or later we will most likely capsize and sail no more. We have to watch our thoughts and our words and our deeds and make sure that we are only raising our sails to catch those winds that will lead us in the right direction. But the wind is not our only source of movement upon deep blue. There are ocean currents that are stable and fixed and proceed through the same course in one eternal round. If we can navigate our way onto an ocean current, and do our best to maintain our way, then we will be borne to our destination no matter what winds prevail. Jesus Christ is the Living Waters. He is the ocean current that will bear us back to Him. As we get better at discerning which winds align with Christ’s current and which ones do not, we will be able to better maintain our course so that we can abide in the powerful flow of our Savior’s love and mercy that is far stronger than any wind of doctrine. In this way, we will avoid the cunning craftiness of men that lie in wait to deceive and destroy us and we will instead by borne of Christ until we arrive safe at port once more.
