RELIGION —
It was a simple statement. On a plaque in a friend’s office. Just 13 words: “O God, Thy sea is so great, and my boat is so small.”
I liked it. I wondered who the author may have been. It did not sound like a quote from Moses, or Lincoln, or Jefferson, or even Shakespeare. Perhaps Robert Frost.
I turned to Google, researching the quote. I learned it was a Breton Fisherman’s prayer. And who were these Bretons? Fishermen from Brittany in northern France.
I also discovered that Admiral Hyman Rickover would give a plaque with the quote on it to each commanding officer of a new Polaris submarine. He also presented one to President John F. Kennedy. He kept it on his desk in the Oval Office.
The quote is also the first line of a poem written by Winfred Ernest Garrison, an American author and church historian who died in 1969. Garrison’s poem reminds us that while we must struggle with the storms of life, God provides peace at last for those who trust Him.
There are indeed times when fierce storms threaten to sink each of us. In those times the love of friends is often the difference in our survival.
Twenty years have passed but I still vividly remember days in an Opelika hospital when a blot clot almost killed me. Dr. Jim Whatley posted a “No Visitors” sign on my door. Later I learned that many friends had signed the pad on the door. Their concern touched me deeply.
When the crisis passed, and I had survived, I planned to write a note of thanks to everyone who had visited me. However, that never happened. I was adrift on the raging sea of pain and depression, robbed of any interest in expressing gratitude. Instead I was focused on myself — my misery and my plight. Self-pity had me by the throat.
Eventually I came to regret that period of self-centeredness when “it was all about me.” Once again a thankful spirit swelled within me. My wife, my family, and my friends, had gently led me out of the slough of depression so I could see things clearly again. My little boat was still afloat.
In these days, when storms clouds still hide the sun, I love it when Jesus sends one of his friends by to ride life’s waves with me for a spell. That’s why I keep an extra paddle in my small boat. A friend’s encouragement calms the angry waves so my small boat can sail quietly on — free of fear and filled instead with the peace Jesus promised.