Anchors, Action, and Dependence on God

Hey All,

  The anchor is a symbol of hope. The anchor is a steady support against the push of the ocean. The anchor keeps you in place in spite of the storm that rages. Thomas Merton wrote that the anchor is “…to signify stability in hope: the theological virtue of hope, dependence on God.” Dependence on God is a tricky proposition. Dependence on God is a natural assumption of the Christian religion and yet in practice it is an exceedingly difficult line to toe. The submission required by a dependence on God is not always apparent and must live in tension with the God given abilities at our disposal.

The decision to act or not act is too broad and even misleading. To not act, after all, is an action all in itself. The temptation to do nothing is appealing in that at least on some level our conscience is assuaged and we rationalize that our inaction grants us some plausible deniability. No less a temptation is the call to charge headlong into action with an overzealous faith in our understanding of the cover of grace.

This seems, at least in my mind, to direct us to the importance of prayer and study. Not to compile some dogmatic lists of do’s and don’ts. Rather to recognize the tension we live in and our own inability to fully perceive Creation as it stands in God’s eyes. Out of our limitations we can recognize the need for Divine input. In our abilities we recognize the call to act. To discern the Godly course we must not cling too firmly to either one of these or any misguided notions of right or wrong. We must learn to pray without ceasing as Paul puts it. We must learn to seek the Divine in each moment. To do this requires that we slow down. When we slow our pace it gives us the time needed to breathe in the moment and give the Spirit a chance to move in the gaps of our limitations.

In Acts 3 Peter and John encounter a man who had been crippled his whole life on their way to the temple. When the man calls out to them for money the scripture says that Peter and John fixed their eyes on him. Now in Greek that phrase, “Fixed his eyes on him,” is atenizō it means to look at something intently, to fully give your attention to something. Peter and John are not caught up in the frantic rush of their plans. They are present in the moment and are willing to give this stranger their undivided attention. Peter heals the man. In this story we see that they were not so caught up in their own notions of what they ought to be doing that they were able to see the needs of others. Peter and John were seeking the Divine in each moment.

By slowing down we give God the chance to move. By slowing down we are able to perceive our own limitations and the need for a dependence on God. By slowing down we can catch glimpses of the world as it is and the world as it can be. We become attuned to the beautiful tragedy all around us. We become aware of the overwhelming amount of work to be done, our inability to affect much of anything, and out of that awareness we can see the need for God to be our anchor.

Have a good one,

Carl