SPIRIT ON THE SAIL
Chapter Five
Something More
It is nearly 10:30am, and foam is no longer splattering the deck. The squall, with its 11 - 13 ft breakers, has passed leaving less agitated crests, none over 10ft. "So Chubasco, how did we do?" A rude check assures me the vessel is in good order.
An inquiry into my own physical and emotional wellbeing meets with a nod of self-approval. Now that the fiercely shifting Near Gale winds have ceased, dropping to a steady Strong Breeze of around 25-knots I notice at no time did alert mindfulness shift into anxiety. It could be I was simply too busy to be afraid. Yes, but there was something more. I think I just love this whole sailing thing so much that I didn't realistically consider the danger. The Apostle John description of loves affect on the one in-love seems to apply, "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear."
It's the old "love affect"...a confidence without certainty, assurance without reason, conviction without limits. It's a trust without reliance on wits or experience, a knowledge of something unknownable, a faith without reservation. That is the same kind of confidence I sense concerning the reception of an undebatable proof of God's reality waiting for me today, on this vessel transfer.
Seventeen miles ahead, in Mexican waters, the four Los Coronado Islands stand clearly under a low atmospheric vizier on the horizon. Hoping to maintain a 165°m South-Southeast headings I point Chubasco’s bow toward the largest of them. Two miles off our port beam the sheer rock face of San Diego's Sunset Cliffs stand glare-free under the thick low cloud ceiling, which seem to create a protected hallway for our down wind passage.
Stowing my navigation gear marks a welcomed transition from calculating the course on a chart to the simple joy and freedom of visual navigation.
An inquiry into my own physical and emotional wellbeing meets with a nod of self-approval. Now that the fiercely shifting Near Gale winds have ceased, dropping to a steady Strong Breeze of around 25-knots I notice at no time did alert mindfulness shift into anxiety. It could be I was simply too busy to be afraid. Yes, but there was something more. I think I just love this whole sailing thing so much that I didn't realistically consider the danger. The Apostle John description of loves affect on the one in-love seems to apply, "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear."
It's the old "love affect"...a confidence without certainty, assurance without reason, conviction without limits. It's a trust without reliance on wits or experience, a knowledge of something unknownable, a faith without reservation. That is the same kind of confidence I sense concerning the reception of an undebatable proof of God's reality waiting for me today, on this vessel transfer.
Seventeen miles ahead, in Mexican waters, the four Los Coronado Islands stand clearly under a low atmospheric vizier on the horizon. Hoping to maintain a 165°m South-Southeast headings I point Chubasco’s bow toward the largest of them. Two miles off our port beam the sheer rock face of San Diego's Sunset Cliffs stand glare-free under the thick low cloud ceiling, which seem to create a protected hallway for our down wind passage.
Stowing my navigation gear marks a welcomed transition from calculating the course on a chart to the simple joy and freedom of visual navigation.
.
To me, sailing is much more than the intellectual challenge of plotting a specific course...as necessary as that is. It's even more than the exhilaration of holding a steady course against the drift of ocean currents, more than the liberation of swaying in synch with frisky waves, beyond the delight of harmonizing sail trim with the power and direction of the wind.
As great as those mental and emotion rewards of sailing are, they are simply meager bonuses of something far more significant, an experience beyond physical, physiological, and neurological sensations. It's the indefinable state known by all who have fallen in love with the magic of the sea...a transcendent connection with the energy and power of ocean...a union with the immense forces of nature.
That nearly spiritual connection opens a sailor's imagination (at least mine) to the possibility of a greater invisible force beyond the physical world. It is the reality of an intimate spiritual communion with an Eternal force registered within the human heart. It is the Spirit on the Sail within our soul.
The Hidden Ocean
The way I see it, the human heart contains a hidden ocean, more powerful in its silence than the fury of the mightiest sea, but recognized only by the adoration of faith. Faith views beyond the material, as it gazes upon the non-material with eyes of the heart.
However in the absence of faith, God's presence remains concealed. Unwillingness to believe with our hearts, even when His goodness and grace are most evident, we routinely mistake such exposures of His character for positive element of our own nature. Without the recognition of faith His reality not only hides in plan sight, but becomes unrecognizably polluted by our own desires, lusts, and addictions.
Unfortunately, convincing someone of the possibility of God's place within the human heart is not a proof, any more than finding a round hole proves the necessary existence of a matching round peg.
Nevertheless, perfect love casts out all fear, including the fear of disappointment. Holding Chubasco confidently on course, I fully anticipate "proof" is no further away than the marine behind Shelter Island.
As great as those mental and emotion rewards of sailing are, they are simply meager bonuses of something far more significant, an experience beyond physical, physiological, and neurological sensations. It's the indefinable state known by all who have fallen in love with the magic of the sea...a transcendent connection with the energy and power of ocean...a union with the immense forces of nature.
That nearly spiritual connection opens a sailor's imagination (at least mine) to the possibility of a greater invisible force beyond the physical world. It is the reality of an intimate spiritual communion with an Eternal force registered within the human heart. It is the Spirit on the Sail within our soul.
The Hidden Ocean
The way I see it, the human heart contains a hidden ocean, more powerful in its silence than the fury of the mightiest sea, but recognized only by the adoration of faith. Faith views beyond the material, as it gazes upon the non-material with eyes of the heart.
However in the absence of faith, God's presence remains concealed. Unwillingness to believe with our hearts, even when His goodness and grace are most evident, we routinely mistake such exposures of His character for positive element of our own nature. Without the recognition of faith His reality not only hides in plan sight, but becomes unrecognizably polluted by our own desires, lusts, and addictions.
Unfortunately, convincing someone of the possibility of God's place within the human heart is not a proof, any more than finding a round hole proves the necessary existence of a matching round peg.
Nevertheless, perfect love casts out all fear, including the fear of disappointment. Holding Chubasco confidently on course, I fully anticipate "proof" is no further away than the marine behind Shelter Island.
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