Lose sight of the shore
View from our cabin on the Diamond Princess, her maiden voyage 2004
“One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” — André Gide
To live a life of faith, we must be willing to relinquish the illusion of control. This does not imply being imprudent or foolhardy, but it does suggest that our vision is limited at best. Putting our trust in what we cannot see may feel risky at first, but living a reactive, fearful life is ultimately the more dangerous course. If we sacrifice our freedom to a false sense of security, we will likely end up neither free nor safe.
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- Tagged: discovery, faith, Pacific Ocean, trust, voyage
Defeat Despair 
Thank You! You and Yours are in my heart and prayers without ceasing in Thanksgiving to our AWEsome God and Savior Jesus Christ and Comfortor Holy Spirit. The Holy Word through the experience of Peter with Jesus reveals many valuable lessons in “walking on water by Faith.” Blessing & agape Love Beloved sister in Christ. Phil4:6,7
Thanks so much! Even with everything that is happening we are experiencing the peace mentioned in Phil 4:7 and for that we thank everyone for their prayers. As my sister Carla keeps reminding me, “I don’t know what the future holds…but I know Who holds the future.” Hope all is going well with you and your family. Thanks for visiting here.
I believe this to be your most poignant blog entry yet. Thank you for your inspiring example to your older brother!
Eric, I appreciate your kind words. Jeff and I have had the advantage of some really great friends whose example of courage in similar circumstances has shown us the way to deal with such things. Keep the prayers coming; they are helping tremendously.
Julia,
Thank you for the reminder! That is true in all aspects of our lives. As you suggested, living by faith gets easier as we experience God’s blessings, but it can be scary when we first start out. I can sense that you and Jeff are relying on God so completely as you go through this difficult and uncertain time in your lives. Your blog has been a blessing to me, and others i am sure!
Love You,
Anna
Anna, thanks so much for your kind words! It’s a comfort to be in touch with someone who had a “front row seat” (so to speak) during the days when Jeff and I were first dating. I’m so glad that you like the blog. I wish you could see how strong Jeff has been. His stoicism (which, as you know, used to irritate me at times) is serving him well. We do experience lots of emotional moments but they are fortified by our knowledge that God is powerful, merciful and good. The prayers of so many people are keeping us afloat. Thanks for being one of them! Love you too!
Is this the boat that crashed in Italy?
No, that was a Costa ship, I believe. Our good friends did sail on that ship just a year or two before it crashed – oh my! We have a strong preference for Princess or Celebrity, but of course, that’s just what we like, not necessarily what is safest. Any sort of travel has some degree of risk, but most trips are no more dangerous than staying home and driving on the interstate highways. I think we’ve encountered our greatest risks on shore, where I always insist on taking the (very interesting and sometimes unreliable) public transportation. It’s a bit easier to be adventurous during the day if you have the comfortable ship to come back to in the evening! 🙂
Magnificent observations! Thank you! It seems that so many people today have “control” issues. We must continually learn to put ourselves in God’s merciful hands.
Carla, sometimes I think I’m the queen of control issues. I find that the illusion of control is often a way to deal with anxiety, and I think that anxiety may be far more prevalent in the world today (despite our many advantages) than generations ago when people interacted mostly with other people, instead of mostly with robots and machines.
Inspiring post. Thank you.
I’m so happy you like it. Thanks for being here.