Anchor: Good or Bad

As seen in the HEARTbeat and Village Voice

"Anchor:  Good or Bad?”

             What is an anchor?  There are wall anchors, concrete and brick anchors, boat anchors, and many more.  For the purpose of this discussion, I would like to concentrate on the boat anchor, both in design and function.

             The Marine Insight webpage defines an anchor as such: “An anchor refers to a nautical or marine equipment intended to restrict vehicle or structural movement in the water. Anchors achieve their purpose by either using their weight to hold structures in place, clamping on to the bed of the waterbody, or using a combination of both these techniques.”  To do this, they come in a variety of shapes and sizes, flexible and fixed.

As people who own a boat know, an anchor can be a useful and necessary item.  It can be used to secure a boat in a fixed position on a lake or river to keep the wind or the current from pushing it either across the lake or downstream.  This enables the occupants to enjoy the views as the watery world passes you by or to stay in that great fishing spot.

But can an anchor be harmful?  What if a boat is anchored and a massive storm ensues?  The anchor holds the boat at a fixed distance from the bottom of the lake or river while the waves crash against the boat.  If the waves are taller than the travel distance of the anchor chain, it could allow for water to come over the edge and swamp the boat, possibly causing it to sink.  Therefore, holding the boat in one place may be a bad thing considering the circumstances surrounding the boat!

Relationships with people can sometimes be explained in the same way as an anchored boat.  We all need someone who has a firm grasp on the world around them and can serve to help us weather the storm.  We may feel tossed around by the troubles of this world, but our anchor never lets us become overwhelmed and swamped by our troubles, even to the point of helping us bail some water out of our boats!

There are several examples of anchors in the Bible.  Try as they may though, they had their times of failure.  They were someone’s anchor until they found themselves in a situation when they had to give up being an anchor and had to seek out another who would become their anchor.  Time and time again that person is Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except by me” (emphasis added). When times of trouble hit our individual boats, who do we call upon?  Who can we depend on more than anyone else we’ve ever known?  That person is the one who died so that we could overcome this world and all its troubles, and be joint heirs with Him in all His riches in Heaven.

Need the best anchor ever?  Call out to the One who calms the storms and keeps us on solid ground – ALWAYS!