Christmas is over. Every year it comes. And every year it goes. We either got it all done or we didn’t. We ate lots of food, opened a few presents, had fun ( or drama ) with family and went to sleep that night, another Christmas in the books.
Then we’re left with the week in between. The week in between Christmas and New Year’s Day. It’s a time of cleaning up and looking ahead. A time of remembering and reflecting. A time to make note of what we liked and what we want to change.
This morning I found the perfect verse to fit this time of year.
So they cut off the anchors and left them in the sea. Then they lowered the rudders, raised the foresail, and headed toward shore. Acts 27:40
Some of you may be confused. It certainly doesn’t look like a Christmasy or New Year kind of verse. But look just a little bit closer and you’ll see it too.
This verse comes from Acts 27 when the apostle Paul was being transferred as a prisoner to Rome and was about to be shipwrecked on the island of Malta. They were on day 14 of a violent, wicked storm. They’d already thrown cargo and food and some of the ship’s gear overboard to try to lighten it up.
Things got worse and then they saw land and the only way to get to it was through a shipwreck.
“So they cut off the anchors and left them in the sea…”
The anchors weren’t just sitting idly by, serving no purpose.They were slowing the ship down to keep it where it needed to be. They were a useful part of the ship.
Everyone say, “USEFUL.”
Sometimes to get to where we’re going, we need to cut some things off and leave them behind in the sea. Even good things. Even things we like. Things that at one time had purpose and had been a useful part of our journey.
Usually in this week in between, we look at the negative things we want stop doing or the bad things we want to make better. Eat less sugar. Exercise more. Spend more time with the kids. Cut out negativity.
Changing the bad things is a good thing. Don’t get me wrong. We need to do this too.
But there may also be some things that are holding us back from moving ahead into God’s plan for our lives that were at one time a useful part of the journey, and we need to be okay with cutting anchor on these as well.
In Acts 6, we see the apostles do this when they choose the seven to oversee the feeding of widows. They saw it was time for them to be less hands on because it was taking away from their higher calling to preach the Word in a deeper way.
So they cut that anchor and left it in the sea.
It probably wasn’t easy. I’m sure people weren’t happy. The apostles likely enjoyed the time they had with the widows and people they were serving. But to get to where they were going (ministering in greater power and demonstration) they had to cut that anchor and rearrange their time.
Lord, show us what we need to cut off and leave in the sea to get to where you want us to be in 2019 and give us the strength to do it. Amen.
