Row, row, row your boat
I work, and I study, and I make small talk with various acquaintances over coffee or breakfast or a game of cards; and sometimes, like now, I wonder what all of my efforts are leading to.Oh, of course, I have these pretty ideas in my head of a nice house and a picket fence and 2.5 kids and a dog, but I suppose nothing on this earth is guaranteed. Sometimes that thought can be a little bit depressing, but this time (and some other times) it makes me sit back and realize, once again, that I am completely in God's hands, no matter what may or may not happen; and that makes me feel a little hopeful and a little apprehensive, but mostly I am at peace with the simple fact that God has a plan and he knows what he's doing.
Some people liken this to being adrift at sea; the analogy is that we, the sailor, have no control over where the boat is going, but simply must take what is thrown at us by the wind and the waves, keeping in mind that God will guide our boat where he means it to go.
I don't like that analogy. As an admitted control freak and amateur philosopher, I find it hard to accept that we play no part in sailing our own boats. Rather, I like to think that we have cast off with a fully functioning rudder and oars and sails, but with an incomplete map of the sea. We may have a destination in mind, or at least navigation check-points that we mean to reach during the course of our journey; we may have a timetable we wish to keep. But we are working from this incomplete map and from our imperfect knowledge of the sea and its hidden intricacies, so we can never know with absolute certainty what path we will follow to our final destination. Sometimes we will sail with the prevailing winds; sometimes we will struggle to tack in a different direction; sometimes we will be caught up in a current that we cannot fight. Every decision we make will have some dependence on our navigational fix; if we want to see the journey through, we must strive to remain properly oriented. But after all, God will guide our boat where he means it to go, with or without our help.
As Thoreau wrote, "It is by a mathematical point only that we are wise, as the sailor or the fugitive slave keeps the polestar in his eye; but that is sufficient guidance for all our life. We may not arrive at our port within a calculable period, but we would preserve the true course."
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Labels: my future, philosophy, ponderings
posted by the alygator @ 1:08 PM
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