her where the security officer was holding Dave.
If I
were a parent, I’d want to know
, I told myself.
That evening I received an irate phone call from Dave’s father, a highly influential lawyer. “How dare you talk to mywife in front of her friend?” (To be candid, I was so focused on finding Mrs. Todd, I didn’t realize anyone else was around!) “Meet me at your office tomorrow morning,” he demanded. “And you had better be ready to make your statements about my son stand up in court!”
Petrified, I envisioned a gut-wrenching showdown. It was that and more. At the beginning of the early-morning conference, which lasted three hours, I apologized to Mrs. Todd. “Sharing about Dave in front of your friend was totally insensitive, and I am so terribly sorry,” I told her. “Would you forgive me?” She said she would.
However, the momentary relief I felt following her gracious response was quickly overshadowed by Mr. Todd. I can truthfully say that up to that point in my life I had never been talked to in such a manner. He would ask a question, and as I began my answer, he would cut me off mid-sentence with sarcastic antagonism. Over and over again I was dismissed, disregarded, disrespected.
As my mock trial continued—filled with yelling, accusations about my character, and threats to have me fired—I chose to say nothing. Instead I spoke silently to God. Soon Proverbs 16:7 began to anchor me in the Lord’s unchanging truth: “When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.”
In the end I was not fired from my job. Instead I learned an important lesson: “Praise in public, confront in private.”And I learned about God’s surpassing greatness as a stabilizing anchor in my life.
#3: THE PLOW ANCHOR
Plow anchors are typically massive and heavy and are often able to swivel. Versatile and adaptable, they are effective in rock, kelp, grass, weeds, sand, and mud (though not in heavy grass). 5
Jesus is our anchor.
Like the plow anchor, Jesus stabilizes us when all we can see around us are problems. With the plow anchor’s swivel capabilities comes an agility and adeptness to anchor. Jesus anchors us even through life’s most difficult circumstances—the death of a loved one or a devastating diagnosis, for example. When our problems are overwhelming and what we see saddens our soul, Jesus never fails to be our anchor.
Biblical example
: Early in His ministry, Jesus traveled to Capernaum, where he was approached by a high-ranking Roman soldier, a centurion in charge of a hundred men. The man’s beloved servant was paralyzed and in deep pain, and his only hope for relief was healing from the Son of God Himself. Jesus agreed to go to the centurion’s home and heal the servant, but the centurion respectfully stopped Him. In recognition of Jesus’ authority and power, he humbly professed, “Only say the word, and my servant will be healed.” 6 Jesus marveled at the centurion’s powerful confession of faith and said He’d seen nothing like it in all of Israel. And then He healed the suffering servant.
Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that very hour. (Matt. 8:13)
Jesus has proven Himself to be my personal “plow” anchor
amidst one of the most painful losses of my life—the death of my precious mother. In 1998 Mother was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer. She died the following year at age eighty-three. A kinder, more humble, thoughtful, and loving woman I have never known.
Washington Irving said, “A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to
If I
were a parent, I’d want to know
, I told myself.
That evening I received an irate phone call from Dave’s father, a highly influential lawyer. “How dare you talk to mywife in front of her friend?” (To be candid, I was so focused on finding Mrs. Todd, I didn’t realize anyone else was around!) “Meet me at your office tomorrow morning,” he demanded. “And you had better be ready to make your statements about my son stand up in court!”
Petrified, I envisioned a gut-wrenching showdown. It was that and more. At the beginning of the early-morning conference, which lasted three hours, I apologized to Mrs. Todd. “Sharing about Dave in front of your friend was totally insensitive, and I am so terribly sorry,” I told her. “Would you forgive me?” She said she would.
However, the momentary relief I felt following her gracious response was quickly overshadowed by Mr. Todd. I can truthfully say that up to that point in my life I had never been talked to in such a manner. He would ask a question, and as I began my answer, he would cut me off mid-sentence with sarcastic antagonism. Over and over again I was dismissed, disregarded, disrespected.
As my mock trial continued—filled with yelling, accusations about my character, and threats to have me fired—I chose to say nothing. Instead I spoke silently to God. Soon Proverbs 16:7 began to anchor me in the Lord’s unchanging truth: “When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.”
In the end I was not fired from my job. Instead I learned an important lesson: “Praise in public, confront in private.”And I learned about God’s surpassing greatness as a stabilizing anchor in my life.
#3: THE PLOW ANCHOR
Plow anchors are typically massive and heavy and are often able to swivel. Versatile and adaptable, they are effective in rock, kelp, grass, weeds, sand, and mud (though not in heavy grass). 5
Jesus is our anchor.
Like the plow anchor, Jesus stabilizes us when all we can see around us are problems. With the plow anchor’s swivel capabilities comes an agility and adeptness to anchor. Jesus anchors us even through life’s most difficult circumstances—the death of a loved one or a devastating diagnosis, for example. When our problems are overwhelming and what we see saddens our soul, Jesus never fails to be our anchor.
Biblical example
: Early in His ministry, Jesus traveled to Capernaum, where he was approached by a high-ranking Roman soldier, a centurion in charge of a hundred men. The man’s beloved servant was paralyzed and in deep pain, and his only hope for relief was healing from the Son of God Himself. Jesus agreed to go to the centurion’s home and heal the servant, but the centurion respectfully stopped Him. In recognition of Jesus’ authority and power, he humbly professed, “Only say the word, and my servant will be healed.” 6 Jesus marveled at the centurion’s powerful confession of faith and said He’d seen nothing like it in all of Israel. And then He healed the suffering servant.
Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that very hour. (Matt. 8:13)
Jesus has proven Himself to be my personal “plow” anchor
amidst one of the most painful losses of my life—the death of my precious mother. In 1998 Mother was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer. She died the following year at age eighty-three. A kinder, more humble, thoughtful, and loving woman I have never known.
Washington Irving said, “A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to
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