KINDNESS & Storms

At this point KINDNESS has carried Diane and I over 2500 nautical miles. We all have our own life journey to get to who and where we are and many have figuratively traveled. Considerably further distances than the KINDNESS crew. So question, "What is better, the journey or the destination?" I'll argue it is neither the journey or the destination. it is the company kept.

On KINDNESS we have Rule #1. Rule #1 is "Stay on the boat". Rule #2 is "Obey Rule#1”. When Diane and I travel across the open ocean 100 miles offshore at night, to leave the boat is death. When we are on watch at night, we wear a harness and clip a tether to the boat. Rule #1 is extremely important.

Diane and I sailed KINDNESS with a hired Captain from the British Virgin Islands(BVI) to Fort Lauderdale Fl. An insurance requirement due to our lack of experience. At the end of the sail, with the Captain's endorsement, we were able to have insurance and solo sail (without a captain) from that point on.

Our first solo sail, was from Fort Lauderdale to Charleston, South Carolina. We decided to cut across through the open ocean as opposed to going up along the coast. We got off to a great start. The wind, seas, and current, all in our favor, we were moving. We set our sails wing on wing, our head sail(Jib) out one way and the main sail out the opposite side with a preventer to keep it in place. We went through the first night without event and our confidence grew.

The next day Diane saw a water spout(tornado on the water) in the distance, fortunately not on our path. We started to see clouds forming with visible lighting far in the distance as we approached the second night. Based on the weather report we got through on our satellite based communication device(Garmin inReach), we put one reef in the sails based on the predicted sustained winds of 22kt.

On KINDNESS, we do shifts at night to keep watch. Diane does 9-12. I do 12-3(often longer) and Diane does 3-6. As I was coming up to take my shift at midnight, Diane mentioned seeing lightning and no sooner did she say it, we were in our first storm.

Traditional mono-hull sailboats heel(tip) to spill wind when there is too much wind. Catamarans due to their width can not heel. They have to reduce the exposed sail by what's called reefing. We were expecting 22kts of wind and as soon as we hit the storm, we were exposed to 30kts sustained and our sails are in danger of being overpowered. Overpowered means the sails could rip, the boat gets de-masted(loose what holds up the sails), or worse case scenario if the winds continue to increase, KINDNESS flips.

We are at least 60 miles off shore on our own in the dark. You couldn't see five feet from the boat and it is now raining hard with the wind and waves. At this point we had not purchased foul weather gear and the rain is cold. To reduce sail meant going forward out of the safety of the cockpit(rear portion of the catamaran) to remove the sail preventers and lower sails.

I made the decision based on training, to not to go forward(out of the cockpit) but instead to use KINDNESS' speed to reduce the power of the wind by sailing her down wind as fast as possible. In these conditions, KINDNESS sailed between 10 and 15 knots which reduced the wind accordingly as long as we kept her facing downwind.

This tactic would only work if the wind did not continue to increase beyond 30kts.. No longer did our course to destination matter. I stared at the wind gauge and did all I could to keep KINDNESS heading downwind. I was counting every minute. Diane was inside praying. She did not sleep even though her shift was over. Thoughts ran through my head, "Am I going to be completely humbled coming into port with a damaged rig and/or sails". Then I had a horrifying thought, "Am I going to be able to protect my wife." I was frightened and counted every minute waiting for the storm to pass over, staring at the wind gauge, hoping the wind wouldn't increase further in strength. This lasted 3 hours.

We talk to seasoned sailors when we can and ask, "What would you do in the situation we encountered?" Some like what we did and others say we should have gone forward and reduced sail. However, the wisest of answers was, when we saw lightning as the sun was setting, we should have reduced sail then.

This was not a hurricane. It was just a typical common lightning storm.

We all face storms in our journey through life. Maybe a few of us have experienced the category 5 hurricane in life. However, most of us, at one point or another, face the common lightning storm.

How do we handle storms in life? Do we white knuckle it ? How do we prepare for our storms? Will our foundation withstand the winds and the waves?

In the Bible, Peter was an experienced sailor who knew Rule #1, “Stay in the boat”. The boat is life. At night with wind and waves, invited by Jesus, Peter breaks Rule#1, he gets out of the boat. After going through the storm, my understanding and respect for this event has sky rocketed.

There are only two people in the Bible reported to be asleep during a storm at sea. One was Jesus and the other was Jonah.

Mat 12:38-41

Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from you."

He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.

What was so special about Jonah's message for Nineveh? The message proclaimed was, "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown." Why would anyone listen to such a message from a stranger? Nineveh listened but why? They listened because of Jonah's journey. Nineveh worshiped a fish God and Goddess. Jonah was resurrected from the belly of a fish.

• Jonah was the sign of his generation because of his journey.

• Jesus was the sign of his generation because of his journey. Jesus was the greater Jonah. Jesus fulfilled Jonah.

• Our journey is the sign for this generation. How we handle our storms is the sign for this generation.

The Bible speaks loudly about winds, waves, and storms. It says we are to be a shelter for one another. This sounds a lot like KINDNESS. Our journey is meant to have a great purpose and to be a sign of something greater as we persevere through storms.

In the book of Daniel, for Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, God did not prevent the fire. He simply put Jesus in there with them.

Dan 3:25

He said, "Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods." 

God promises too be with us through every storm. Which is more important, the journey or the destination?

The company kept is what matters most.

Interesting Bible(NIV) passages for additional study

©2023 Living Source

KINDNESS & Confused Seas

A Very Confused Sea

Definition

confused sea - (oceanography) A highly disturbed water surface without a single, well-defined direction of wave travel.

Covid has created truly strange times and many many are experiencing significant hardship. Many have even lost loved ones.

At the beginning of the Pandemic Diane I experienced the following due to Covid:

• We were in the process of selling our home in West Springfield after buying a house in Amherst

  • The Pandemic hits and houses stop selling leaving us with two mortgages

• I got Poison Ivy (My Kryptonite) all over including my face which began to swell my eyes shut

  • I have to have steroids to get rid of it (Both oral and topical)

• Our home in Gloucester, we rent seasonally, dried up due to the pandemic

  • The rent is how we pay for its taxes, utilities, etc.

• Finally I lost my job (Yes in the middle of a Pandemic with two mortgages)

  • I worked for a payroll software company which served small to to medium sized companies

  • Small to medium sized companies were shut down and stopped doing payroll

• Our youngest son and two of my siblings contracted Covid

Applying What You Know in a Time of Trial

It is one thing to agree with something said or even read.  It is quite another thing to apply it to your life in a time of trial.

• I have been fortunate to receive great teaching on Identity, hope, and surrender.

• I know my identity comes from God

• So why am I so disturbed I lost my job?

• My hope is in Jesus. Struggles are not bad as long as you have hope.

• So why am I so afraid of failing my family and loosing every physical asset we own?

• Diane and I have weathered storms before and we know they do not last forever

• Why can’t I seem to find peace?

• God is in control

• So why does it bother me so much I have no control over what’s happening?

Pro 3:5-7

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil. 

Maybe I feel all these things because, “I want to lean on my own understanding, I want to be wise in my own eyes.”

This is where God brings discipline and it is up to me to decide if I am willing to accept it.

For the past year or so, I have been studying out nature and what it means metaphorically in the Bible.  So what does the sea represent metaphorically? Often in the Bible, it represents something you need to go through to reach God’s desired destination for you or more simplified, it means obstacle. 

For me personally, the obstacle the sea represents, is my emotional state of being.  The sea of emotions

What are the properties of the Sea of Emotions?

• It can be calm (Non Covid)

• It can be fun, ride the waves and see where the currents take me

• It can be stormy, raging, and fearful

• The sea has different depths

• The sea has different temperatures

• Moving(living) water is healthy, yet stagnant idol water is poisonous

• External force(wind) causes the sea to be turbulent (otherwise it’s natural state is calm)

For some people, there is little no connection to their emotional state

• They are land locked and see no purpose for emotions.

Others need a constant connection to their sea

• Always monitoring its state

So how does the Bible address the sea.

The Bible often refers to the sea as the depths of the earth.

Psa 71:17-21  

Since my youth, God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. 

Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come. 

Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens, you who have done great things. Who is like you, God? 

Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. 

You will increase my honor and comfort me once more. 

God rules the over the sea.

Psa 89:8-9  

Who is like you, LORD God Almighty? You, LORD, are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you. 

You rule over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them. 

Idols(False God’s) are the Wind and Confusion.  Wind Causes Waves

Isa 41:22 -29

"Tell us, you idols, what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were, so that we may consider them and know their final outcome. Or declare to us the things to come, 

tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods. Do something, whether good or bad, so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear. 

But you are less than nothing and your works are utterly worthless; whoever chooses you is detestable. 

"I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes— one from the rising sun who calls on my name. He treads on rulers as if they were mortar, as if he were a potter treading the clay. 

Who told of this from the beginning, so we could know, or beforehand, so we could say, 'He was right'? No one told of this, no one foretold it, no one heard any words from you. 

I was the first to tell Zion, 'Look, here they are!' I gave to Jerusalem a messenger of good news. 

I look but there is no one— no one among the gods to give counsel, no one to give answer when I ask them. 

See, they are all false! Their deeds amount to nothing; their images are but wind and confusion. 

God can make straight paths through the sea

Isa 51:10 

Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a road in the depths of the sea so that the redeemed might cross over? 

God is above the Sea

Job 9:8

He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea. 

We are surrounded by mighty waters

Psa 144:7  

Reach down your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters

A promise from God

Isa 41:13  

For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. 

Emotional Peter - Jesus treads on the waves of the sea

Mat 14:29  Jesus says come to me not through the sea but above it

• Peter’s fear of the wind and the waves causes him to sink.

• Faith is how we rise above our emotions

• Faith in the Love of God is how we conquer and overcome fear - key word “over”as in rise above

Jesus has authority over the wind and therefore the waves

Mar 4:37-41  

A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 

Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" 

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. 

He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" 

They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!" 

Jesus’ Sea Regarding the Cross

In the Garden

Mar 14:34  

"My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,"

Prophetic Scriptures of the Cross

Psa 22:14 

I am poured out like water

Psa 42:7  

Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. 

Psa 88:6  

You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths. 

Your wrath lies heavily on me; you have overwhelmed me with all your waves. 

You have taken from me my closest friends and have made me repulsive to them. I am confined and cannot escape; 

Jesus Drowns on the Cross so we can Rise Above

Heb 4:15 

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.

Conclusion

Psa 135:5-6

I know that the LORD is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods. The LORD does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths. 

Joh 14:27

  Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. 

People say remember the good times

God says, over and over, remember the hard times when I was there to reach down and help you.
I will do my best to never forget those troubled times and how trusting God helped me maintain hope.

Even though the Bible says to accept hardship as loving discipline and it will produce righteousness, I struggle to accept it and grumble inwardly like a rebellious child.  No discipline is pleasant at the time, and there was been little pleasant about those times.  It takes courage to accept discipline and be refined by it.

So What Happened to Our Covid Situation

• My Poison Ivy cleared up

• We sold the West Side house

• I took a job offer in Boston

• After 30 plus years in the Pioneer Valley, we moved back to the sea, Gloucester, Ma

• Covid made remote development work the norm

• All family members with Covid, recovered

• Put both houses up for rent and sold our minivan

• Bought KINDNESS our 2006 43 foot Leopard sailing catamaran down in the British Virgin Islands

• Sailed KINDNESS to the US and up the coast to Gloucester with plans to go South seasonally

After persevering through a turbulent prolonged labor, KINDNESS has become a reality. You could even say KINDNESS emerged from a confused sea.

©2023 Living Source