Keep Your Eye on the Horizon
Unfortunately, I will never forget the time I went fishing with my dad in Hawaii. I really didn’t want to go, but I got talked into taking what he called “a little fishing trip” off the coast of Maui. I had fished off the coast of Florida once, and I thought it was pretty cool; so I figured this wouldn’t be much different. Once I was on the boat and we had driven to the point of no return, I was told that this was going to be an eight-hour fishing trip. Then I realized that I didn’t see any fishing poles on the boat, only a huge seat with a seat belt and a humongous fishing rod attached to it. At this point, I was made aware that we were going to have to take turns fishing. As if fishing doesn’t already require more waiting than I can hardly stand, now I was going to have to wait my turn to wait for a fish to bite. Sounds like fun. Not only that, but the fish that we would probably catch were going to be so big that we would need to be strapped in so that we weren’t flung overboard. As you can imagine, I thought, “What did I just get myself into?”

I wish it stopped there, but it didn’t. It also turned out that the waves that day were unimaginably huge. If I didn’t white knuckle the railing, I would get violently thrown to the other side of the boat. I couldn’t believe that I had eight whole hours of holding on for dear life to look forward to. The captain noticed that I was taken aback by the giant waves and said quite matter-of-factly, “Yep, nothin’ like takin’ a sail on the third roughest channel on earth.”

“Third what?!!!”   Yep, I had unwittingly stepped onto a boat for an all-day venture on the third roughest channel on planet earth. Needless to say, I got incredibly seasick. The only regimen they had was this homeopathic ginger serum. Apparently, you’re supposed to drop a couple drops under your tongue, and your nausea should just “poof” go away. Well, after a few hours of absolute misery, I had consumed the entire vile of hippie ginger juice, and no, it did not work. In addition to all of that, the fish were NOT BITING that day. Those darn fish. The captain felt so bad that we weren’t catching any fish, that he blessed us with two whole extra free hours of fishing, in hopes that we would eventually get lucky, turning our would-be eight-hour fishing trip into ten hours! I finally began to cry. I just wanted off the boat. The entire day, the captain would tell me over and over, “Look at the horizon!” “Look at the horizon!” “Look at the horizon!”

The fishing trip did finally end. We finally caught a mahi-mahi, which we had cooked fresh for us at the harbor. My nausea subsided and I ended up with a fabulous tan. So, I forgave my dad for tricking me into the worst fishing experience of my life. One thing that stuck with me, besides to never ever go deep sea fishing again, was the advice that the captain kept giving me: “Look at the horizon.”   When you get seasick, looking at the horizon can actually make you feel better. It helps you to establish your equilibrium, and enables you to find your bearings again. Although there may be a chaos of waves all around you, there is stability in the horizon. If you can fix your eyes there, the stormy seas can be endured.

Life can certainly get a bit chaotic. If we allow it to, the sea of pressures, challenges, and responsibilities can become insurmountable. That is why we have to fix our eyes on the One who never changes. In order to find our bearings, realign our perspectives, and get our hearts back in the right position, we must turn our eyes upon Jesus. When we view life in light of Him, all of the big problems that glare us in the face suddenly seem a lot smaller. People and situations are less intimidating, obstacles and the odds against us are much easier to face.