Who is Captain of YOUR Soul?

Several years ago my father was in a Houston hospital waiting to undergo bypass surgery. As he readied himself for surgery he clung to a certain famous poem. My father is an atheist. A portion of the poem reads as follows:




"It matters not how straight the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul"

I wept for him as he entered surgery, I begged God to have mercy and allow him to live, and to one day come to a full knowledge of Who is the true Captain of that soul. My prayers were answered in that my father lives, but his head is still bloody and unbowed. He is a prideful man, my father.

All of us, believer or not struggle with that thing called pride, and as we near the end of our look at Jeremy's life in his book "I Still Believe" he too, had allowed a measure of pride to creep into his own life. Things were going good, and he had reached a point in his life where he was saying, "I've got this God, thanks." It's a dangerous position for us to get in when we think "we've got it". It usually right about then that the wheels are about to fall off. Jeremy's dad had a saying that he liked to use:

"We can get so busy doing the work of the Lord that we forget the Lord of the work."

There is a test you can use to see if you've gotten off track, ask yourself some questions and then listen carefully to the answers. Jeremy's answers were filled with "I's". I'm doing this, I'm working hard, I'm succeeding and I'm ministering to people. Subtly the focus shifts from Christ centered to self-centered and soon the joy is sucked out of your service, your energy is waning and you begin to feel overwhelmed. That is exactly what Jeremy was feeling.

Jeremy LISTENED though, to the advice from the people around him, as he refocused on the Word he was abruptly reminded of the reason for all of "this" during an interview as he recounted his testimony and shared Melissa's story. As he shared with the reporter how Melissa's deepest desire was that if one person accepted Christ through her story the fog lifted and his focus was clear once again.

There are so many things in a day that clamor for our attention. THIS will make you happy, THAT will fulfill you,YOU deserve this. The key to true happiness however is to drown out those voices and dig deep into the Word so that you can hear that still small voice that is the Holy Spirit.

What Jeremy heard, and what you need to remember is this:

"God wants you to love Him and to rest in His love for you. He will take care of everything else. He is in control of everything anyway, not you.Your illusion of power is just that and it needs to be broken down."

In August of 2009 Jeremy and his wife Adrienne found out that their third child died in utero.

They clung to Psalm 16.

"Preserve me O God, for in You I put my trust. O my soul, you have said to the Lord, 'You are my Lord, my goodness is nothing apart from You.' O Lord, You are the portion of  my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; yes I have a good inheritance. I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel; my heart also instructs me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; my flesh will also rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will you allow Your Holy One to see Corruption. You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

They were broken, but not destroyed.

II Corinthians 4 tells us that we are "hedged in (pressed) on every side [troubled and oppressed in every way], but not cramped or crushed; we suffer embarrassments and are perplexed and unable to find a way out but we do not despair...always carrying about in the body the liability and exposure to the same putting to death that the Lord Jesus suffered, so that (the Resurrection) life of Jesus may be shown forth by and in our bodies."

So in the passing of a loved one I do not despair, I rejoice at the time I was able to spend with them. When I reflect on the lives of those who have sought to do me harm, and it seems they prosper in their dishonesty, when I look at the life of my father who shakes his fist at heaven and dares God to strike him down, there are times it seems too much...the weight of the grief seems too heavy, but then I remember the words of Paul who said, "I consider that the sufferings of this present time (this present life) not worth being compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us and for us."

So while I live I will continue to make the most of the relationships I have, because one day, they will no longer reside here with me, nor I with them. I will continue to do "the right thing" even when others wickedly use me, and not a day goes by that I don't pray that my father will one day bow his bloodied head in submission to the true Captain of his soul.

Hang tight weary christian, your anchor holds....

XOXO