Sailing on the Tide

It wasn't all that long ago that I realized that during the course of their career, siblings Karen and Richard Carpenter recorded quite a few songs that had references to the sea. This prompted me to compile a Carpenters collection that included songs such as Boat to Sail, Eventide, All You Get From Love is a Love Song, Maybe It's You, and Sailing on the Tide.

The power and mystery of the sea has captured imaginations and hearts since the beginning of time. The quote below powerfully plays to the theme:

"If you yourself do not cut the lines that tie you to the dock, God will have to use a storm to sever them and to send you out to sea. Put everything in your life afloat upon God, going out to sea on the great swelling tide of His purpose, and your eyes will be opened. If you believe in Jesus, you are not to spend all your time in the calm waters just inside the harbor, full of joy, but always tied to the dock. You have to get out past the harbor into the great depths of God, and begin to know things for yourself— begin to have spiritual discernment."  

The great Scottish preacher Oswald Chambers penned this a century ago, and it is just as powerful and compelling today as it was when he first wrote it. It drives me to ask myself, "Where am I not letting go of the dock of safety and self-control? Where I am not letting God direct me and use me?" I'm struggling through the answers to those questions, but I know to let God take me new places would be the continuation of a thrilling, scary, but very powerful adventure. 

How would you answer those same questions?