Below The Waterline

I've been reading a book lately called, Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, by Joanna Weaver.  A good missionary girl-friend of mine gave it to me just before we left to come here and said it was a must read!  So I have been reading it.  Let's just say this friend must know me very well!  I am a Martha. Hard-core Martha.  If I am not doing then I feel then I must not "be".  It's tough for me to sit still long. Anyone who knows me at all knows this is true.  As a matter of fact, I tend toward having my plate too full most of the time.  I have learned to say no at times but I just enjoy serving and being busy. 

 

So here I find myself.  In Papua, Indonesia.  Embarking on a ministry that is all about "doing".  Well, that's what I think anyway.  A guesthouse for tribal missionaries, who will be out for a rest or visa paperwork or enroute to and from their tribal location.  While it may be true; I will be doing a lot here, booking rooms, cleaning, cooking, making beds, being hospitable.  There is also the other end of the spectrum that is also necessary.  The ability to encourage those who pass through our doors.  How can I do that, I'm thinking now as I see how BIG this ministry is?  There will be so much to do just to keep the place running.  To be an encouragement to others requires that I, Bethany get out of the way. It means being still and letting God work through me.

 

So in comes this book I mentioned. I just read something today in it that really caught me.  I will quote it here as if I try to restate it, I won't do it justice. I hope the author doesn't mind.  She has just coming to the end of a section talking about balancing the teeter – totter of a life of worship and service.  How do we do that?  Here's her answer:

 

"The secret of balancing worship and work, devotion and service, love of God and love of people is maintaining our connection to Jesus Christ.  Our relationship with him is the fulcrum, the anchor, the steadying point that makes balance possible in the first place.  And the deeper that relationship goes, the more stable the balance will be.

"'It all begins at the water line.' That's how Jeanne Mayo puts it… 'It takes a ruthless commitment to first things first…I'm constantly having to ask the Lord to do the Psalm 139 thing on me: "Live in my heart. Search and examine me.  Know my heart."' Then Jeanne shared a story that has become a spiritual trigger point in her life.  God is faithful to bring it to mind when her life begins to slip off kilter and out of balance.

"In the autumn of 1992, a man named Michael Plant commenced a solo crossing of the North Atlantic.  An expert yachtsman, Plant had made this trip several times before.  His brand-new sailboat, the Coyote, was so technologically advanced there were few like it in the world.

"Plant set off alone leaving his support team to monitor his trip by satellite and radio.  Everything was going well.  Even when a storm disrupted communications, no one worried much.  After all, this guy was one of the best sailors and navigators to be found.  His boat was equipped with state-of-the-art navigational and emergency equipment.  Plant would resume radio contact when everything settled down.

"But Michael Plant was never heard from again.  After numerous attempts to reach him by radio, the Coast Guard sent helicopters out to look for him.  They found the Coyote floating upside down.  It's captain and sole passenger was never found.  Why?  How could this happen?  the experts wondered.  Everyone knows that sailboats are very hard to turn over.  Their deep keels and massive rudders right themselves.  But as the ship was examined, the cause of the tragedy became clear.  For all its technological advances and beauty, the Coyote didn't have enough weight beneath the water line.  There wasn't enough ballast below to outweigh the fancy gadgetry above.  And so it flipped over as it lost its ability to balance in the water.

"'Our lives will capsize as well,' Jeanne Mayo concludes, 'if what lies below the spiritual water line of our lives doesn't outweigh what lies above.' No matter how good we may look on the surface, no matter how balanced we may seem, it's what lies below that really counts."

 

So I read this and was so convicted.  I am a sailboat who often has lots of gadgetry on the top and very little weight below the waterline.  I get so busy, so often in what Weaver calls "Kitchen service" as a Martha, that finding time for the "Living Room worship" gets jipped.  The timing of this book coming into my hands couldn't have been better.  I am far from having it down pat, I don't think any of us ever do, but I am certainly going to keep my heart tuned to how much weight lies below my surface. 

 

I must add here that there is an element we believers have that a sailboat does not.  That is prayer.  I'm no theologian but I know that the prayers others offer to God for me act as an anchor that pulls me toward my source of strength.  I don't know why it works but it does.  You pray, God hears, His Spirit works in my heart and I am challenged, encouraged or whatever is needed that day or in that moment.  Thank you for standing with us in this voyage to unknown waters.  We, unlike the yachtsman mentioned in the story, are not alone on our trip.  God is with us, and you are with us and we are so thankful.

Bethany