Who’s In Your Boat?

When someone else’s decision turns your life upside down, can you proceed with a calmness about you?

When someone else’s mistake puts you in a difficult situation, do you gracefully handle the situation?

When you feel like you’re losing everything, are you able to optimistically believe that good will result from the bad?

If you’ve answered “no” to these questions, then kindly keep reading.

You are uniquely you, and you are comprised of body and spirit. Your spirit determines what your body does. It’s your navigator.

On their own, our spirits are unreliable. They have a tendency to think of themselves first, others second. They are selfish in nature.

Because of this fact, our Creator gives us access to a helper, a spirit that can intercede for our spirits to help us make good decisions. The condition is that our spirits must want the help. Have you ever tried to help someone who does not want the help? It’s impossible.

Let’s call this spirit the Holy Spirit. If we allow our spirits to be subordinate to the Holy Spirit, then the answer to those questions will be “yes”.

It’s really that simple.

Our personal lives and professional lives were never meant to be separate. They evolved that way largely because of the Industrial Age. Fortunately, the Information Age is giving us a chance to reclaim the original intent.

Therefore, let’s presume your life is your work, and your craft is the single thread that weaves everything together. It’s the one thing you apply many different ways to many different situations, i.e. your role as father or mother, your job, your role as friend, son or daughter, etc … It’s what you’re good at, what you like doing moment to moment, day after day, year after year. When you do it, you don’t even realize you’re working. Work doesn’t feel like work.

When your spirit is subordinate to the Holy Spirit, and you allow yourself to be under its leadership and accept it’s help, then you will get to know what your craft is. The process of discovering your craft is quite remarkable and fun. The journey itself is not easy, but the concept is simple.

Please permit me to illustrate the concept with two stories. Let’s say you make your livelihood catching fish. If fact, many stories in the Bible involve fishermen. Their lives and their work were interwoven.

• Story #1: Jesus and his disciples were on a boat out at sea and a storm hit. The disciples became terrified as Jesus slept like a rock. They woke him up out of fear for their lives and upon waking, Jesus calmly assured them not to be afraid and then proceeded to quiet the wind and the waves.
• Story #2: After fishing for 11 hours and coming up empty, a few disciples returned to Jesus tired and depressed. He told them to immediately go back out to deep waters and cast down their nets. He also offered to join them. While skeptic, they listened to him and proceeded to catch an abundance of fish. It was the same lake, same boat, same nets, same fishermen and same fish. The difference was Jesus’ presence in the boat. It was a game changer.

Now, Jesus modeled the concept of Holy Spirit subordination. He allowed himself to be under its leadership and accepted its help. He showed us how to do it. We only need to study his character, his habits, how he treated people, how he handled day to day situations. He’s the ultimate player-coach. We have the benefit of knowing how he felt about things and can follow his guidance.

In both stories above, the disciples had Jesus in their boat. And because his spirit was in harmony with the Holy Spirit, it too was in their boat. In these stories, the boat is synonymous with our life’s work. When we have the Holy Spirit in our boat, our life and our work is blessed with an abundance that otherwise appears out of reach. Its what guides us to build our craft.

It begs the question, “Who’s in your boat?“