Even the wind and waves obey...

We've been sailing for days now, and there is only water.  There are mini-rainbows in the sea-spray coming up from along the bow, the dolphins dance for us, and the fish have wings.  It's an exercise in patience in a world that usually demands instant gratification.  The distance that could be covered with just a few hours in an airplane takes 10 days of steady sailing.  There is nowhere else to go.  My world is 499 ft long, there is salt in the air, and my eyes can see nothing but blue on blue on blue endlessly stretching out into forever.
It's an instant relief from the stacks of containers on concrete of the Lome harbor, the ever-present trash of Freetown and the faint odor of raw sewage.  There is time to meditate and be still.  To feel the sun on my face and the wind teasing my hair and to just...be.  The night skies are a stretch of dark velvet lavishly scattered with glitter and the faint swirl of the Milky Way, marred only by our masthead running light.

By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.  He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses.  Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him.  For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.  But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. ~ Psalm 33:6-11

Who is this Lord that I serve?  He breathed a blanket of stars...he has jars big enough for this endless ocean and the might to store it inside.

As the wind whipped along the peaks of the waves at over 40 knots yesterday, I stood on the bridge and watched our bow crash into wave after wave and spray seawater all across my favorite dolphin-watching spot.  In a fishing boat it would have been a wild ride for sure.  Was it an afternoon like this where Jesus slept while his disciples got soaked and scared?  From gale-force winds to total calm at a word?

The wind and the waves not only obey him, they exist only for His glory.

So do I.

Photos by the amazing Deb Louden - Thanks Deb!