Anchor Yourself in Christ
I was putting my bicycle onto my car bike rack so I could drive to a good riding trail. I always use a cable with a lock to secure the bike, guarding against theft. It is a pain to reach under the bumper to run the cable through an iron eyelet, the only place to fix the contraption to the heavy car. If I secure only the bike and the wheels, or if I just secure the bike to the rack, the thief can just snip the nylon straps with shears and lift the bike into the getaway vehicle. That would take about 9 seconds. Better to require the thief to haul out his heavy bolt cutter and call more attention to himself.
I know there is no way to absolutely prevent the loss of property or anything in life. I just know the ounce of prevention beats the pound of cure. When speaking about our spiritual wellbeing, and the question, “To what shall I anchor my soul?” the right decision for me is, to God in Christ. A follow-up question is necessary: “Yes, but how?” I was coached a year ago to examine the YBH every time it makes sense to do so. The YBH is the question, “Yes, but how?” If you are reading something and a suggestion is made by the writer without any “how to” piece, it is worth it to write YBH in the margin. You can take a moment after reading to fill in for yourself what makes sense along those lines. If the thing suggested is really worth committing to, it is worth nailing down the means for realizing it.
For you, the way or practice of how to anchor yourself to God could be a study or quiet time and journaling every morning. It might be a daily walk in the prettiest safe spot close by. It might be Bible reflection and reading. Another thing I learned from the same person that taught me YBH is that turning Bible reading into Bible study is accomplished merely with a pencil. He meant that a pencil and pad near you as you read means you can note discoveries you are making. If we give attention to what God is revealing, we are getting it a layer deeper into our soul’s system of learning and growing. Let me emphasize again. We need anchoring to the Source of life. We also need a pattern or mechanism for anchoring. People speak sometimes of a “rule of life.” That’s what I mean here.
Give yourself a moment with the Psalm for liturgy this Sunday.
Psalm 62
6 For God alone my soul in silence waits; *
truly, my hope is in him.
7 He alone is my rock and my salvation, *
my stronghold, so that I shall not be shaken.
8 In God is my safety and my honor; *
God is my strong rock and my refuge.
9 Put your trust in him always, O people, *
pour out your hearts before him, for God is our refuge.
14 Steadfast love is yours, O Lord, *
for you repay everyone according to his deeds.
Does this passage work for you? Perhaps you should read through it slowly again. What is in there for you? We do not put our trust in the idols that come wooing us to attend to them and give our trust to them. Also, we have plenty to say about everything, but before God lets us train ourselves to simply be quiet, routinely. What can we really say before that One who is the All in all? Does it hurt us to let “our soul in silence wait”? No. Let’s be still. God is beyond any of our words.
Though God is beyond any of our images and ideas, what words come from the psalm to signal God’s nature? God is your supplier of hope, your safety, your honor, salvation, stronghold, refuge, and strong rock. What a list of images! The time it takes to roll these concepts through our minds once or twice, consider taking that same amount of time to let them all go. Listen to the quiet that comes after the words drift away. God is beyond these images, so keep company with the God beyond our comprehension. Peace, and quietness; rest and confidence, does a body good.
God in truth, repays everyone according to deeds done, as the little prayer of verse fourteen indicates. Look again above. If we are going to listen to God’s call to follow, if we are truly going to let God bring us around to divine ways, we have to let those ways show up in our deeds. The glorious thing above all else in this final verse is your Strong Rock and Refuge has STEADFAST LOVE and that love is applied perpetually to you. Of course, we want to be “cable-tied,” anchored to the God of steadfast love! There is a mysterious paradox in this. Being tied to anything else is bondage; in being tied to God, we find our only true freedom. Remember YBH; that is, figure out how you will do it, but by all means, secure yourself to your Stronghold of Love.