Boat Anchors and the Ukraine Crisis
If you are a native West Texan (like me), then you may not have much working knowledge of boat anchors. I know of few bodies of water out there among the sand and mesquite trees which retain any sort of depth beyond a few months of the year. Why would an anchor be needed when the lake will dry up by the middle of July anyway?
Boating is so novel to me that I find it a topic of great fascination. The biblical story of Peter climbing out of a boat and subsequently walking on top of water for a few seconds strikes a particularly peculiar interest. Jesus’ call to be “fishers of men” also implies that we have a base knowledge of good boating techniques, although one may not necessarily require a boat for evangelistic angling. Suffice it to say, the truth that there are no less than six types of boat anchors may strike one as mind-blowing. For instance, a “fluke” may do well in sandy bottoms but cannot do the anchoring job effectively in stone. The “kedge” anchor is somewhat better, but the oldest and most reliable anchor seems to be the “plow.” But why would one need any one of many anchors? To prevent drifting and vessel destruction seems to be the number one answer here.
Regardless of one’s boating experience and anchor expertise, he or she should probably consider a spiritual anchor is these rather tense times. Over the weekend, we learned that American diplomats would be hastening themselves back home from Ukraine in the wake of Russian military movements. If you are confused as to why tensions seem to be mounting so suddenly in that part of the world, you can be sure that there is a lengthy and somewhat complicated history between the feuding countries. Much of the history has to do with the consequences of the USSR’s fall and the perception (if not reality) that Ukraine’s alignment with the western allies of the European Union was culturally costly. Not only did one of the old Eastern bloc nations ally themselves with the West, but Russia claims that Ukraine has limited access their access to the Black Sea. Consequently, intelligence services tell us that Russia has placed around 100,000 soldiers on its border with Ukraine. To some, this situation appears eerily similar to the time when Nazi Germany throttled up its armed forces on the Polish border in 1939 under the guise of ethnic, territorial, and militaristic claims. When Germany (and subsequently the USSR) invaded Poland, the powder keg of world war exploded.
You can find the story here: State Department orders diplomats’ families to leave U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, citing ‘threat of Russian military action’ – The Washington Post
What are we to make of this? Will there be a war? No one can tell with any sort of clairvoyance. However, recent polling data reveals that only 15% of Americans would be in favor of U.S. military intervention in the crisis, suggesting that our nation highly believes in neutrality in this particular case. That is, it would take a lot of cajoling from politicians and other national leaders to convince us to get involved.
How ever this all shakes out, let’s make sure to have a good anchor to our faith. Once we pull up our anchor, we can drift and be tossed about, ultimately yanking ourselves apart. Consider the old hymn that says, “My anchor holds and grips the Solid Rock. This Rock is Jesus.” You don’t have to know all the boating terminology to hang your life on to the one who can speak just a word and get the storm to cease.
Consider the woman who had a bleeding issue and simply grasped a tassel on Jesus’ coat. She found healing and change in spite of major crises. Regardless of what is happening both at home and around the world, reach out and hang on to Christ today. You can make it through anything with him.