An anchor for my soul

I heard a sermon recently about anchors.  The premise was about having anchors in Christ in our lives so that we may weather the storms.  The biggest point that stuck for me is the necessity of dropping anchor before the waves kick up.  If you consider practically when you drop an anchor from a boat, you must indeed drop anchor before the waves rise or your anchor won't be able to hold and sustain you.  If dropped too late, you anchor will simply drift right along with you.

There's a worship song from Hillsong that says:
"I have this hope as an anchor for my soul
through every storm I will hold to You
There is hope in the promise of the cross
You gave everything to save the world you love
And this hope is an anchor for my soul
Our God will stand, unshakeable"

I am so grateful for the anchor of God in my life.  Currently I feel like I am in a bit of a storm and so incredibly glad that my God is unshakeable.  So glad because by myself I am most definitely shakeable.

Over the last six months I have moved four times and will make a fifth move next week.  One of those moves involved leaving what had been home for nearly six years.  Another move included a move across the ocean to another continent.  Within these six months I have left a job I understood and loved and traded it for a pioneering position in which I find myself overwhelmed on a regular basis.  It was also a trade of an incredibly high-paced busy schedule to a much slower and focused space.  The last few weeks have included navigating the health care system of a foreign country and filling out piles of insurance forms.  And tomorrow will welcome surgery in a country that is not my home and what seems a million miles away from my family.  

Sitting in my office today, all I can think of is what I need to pack for the hospital, how am I going to get all of my stuff moved next week, I can't forget to file that insurance claim, do I have enough groceries for a few days post-op, what happens if the insurance doesn't accept my claim, and how exactly did I wind up here.  How did I wind up here navigating all of this by myself.

I don't think I'm adult enough for this.  For the last two hours I have fought the urge to leave the office and run.  Like legitimately just run.  Sure I would go home and change clothes first, but I just need to run.  Run until I can't run anymore.  Run until it feels like something has changed or gotten easier.  Run until I'm free from the chaos that I feel like currently surrounds me.  The other urge I'm fighting is to drown my sorrow in carbonation and chocolate.  (completely counterproductive to the running)

As I sit and contemplate these options I am so quietly reminded that I have an anchor.  I dropped an anchor a long time ago, well before the storms were on the horizon.  I dropped an anchor when I was still a child.  I made a decision.  A decision that for all of eternity I would walk with Christ and pursue God.  I dropped an anchor knowing that though I am shakeable to the core, my God is unshakeable.  He's not surprised by anything and He's not deterred by anything.  My words for God this year are "greater" and "mightier".  My God is greater and mightier than the storm.  He is greater and mightier than anything I may face.

So I don't run.  I don't find solace in other things.  I simply choose to put my trust in the anchor.  See when a storm comes, the fear is that we will be swept away.  But if the anchor holds then really we have nothing to fear.  In this storm that I am currently in my anchor is down and I know it will hold.  I won't be swept away.  I won't be drowned or forgotten.  I won't be overcome.  But through God I will stand.  Through Him I find courage and hope.  Through Him I find strength to do what I could not do on my own.  Through Him I know that I will be ok no matter what storms may brew.

"I have this hope as an anchor for my soul.  Through every storm I will hold to You.  And this hope is an anchor for my soul, our God will stand, unshakeable."