Fearful Voyager

If we were to allow ourselves to be frightened by the daily impact of all we see and all we hear and by all the disappointing circumstances of life, we should soon be so upset that we would lose sight of ultimate objectives. If we should leave our thoughts and our lives open to all of the actual and potential disturbances of each day, we could easily become utterly ineffective-paralyzed with the fearful awareness of impending doom and with the constant awareness of threatened calamity. If we should tremble before all the troubles and tragedies that could or might happen, and fret about them as though they already had happened, life could surely become a fearful ordeal. If every crosscurrent, if every flurry, if every breaker were permitted to capsize us, we would be daily drenched and drowning.

When we live in this world, the storms come, sometimes frequently, sometimes occasionally, and sometimes it seems almost constantly, but a firm faith in the Lord God and in ultimate objectives make the storms worth weathering, no matter how furious or how frequent. The ground swells, the quick squalls, and the deep and elemental disturbances are inevitable in life. And they must not be permitted to upset us to the point where we lose our bearings or swim in circles. The temporary setbacks, the heartaches, the passing disappointments, the deep and bitter sorrows-some of which all of us pass through-must not be permitted to confuse our course.

No man ever had freedom from trouble, or from the prospects of trouble, but many have lived above it and have found peace and quiet accomplishment in spite of the disturbance and confusion of the day. In life we must learn this lesson: There is no smooth surface from shore to shore, from season to season, for anyone. When we’re on the ocean, the storms come. Of course life will upset us if we let it. But we can keep from capsizing if we don’t lose sight of our ultimate objectives. We can keep on our course if we keep planning and working and pursuing useful purposes in the present and keep faith in the future.