Lashed To The Mast - Standing Firm Amidst The Storms Of Life

Many years ago I was a groomsmen at a friends wedding. To some degree our lives had paralleled each other. We both had an interest in history. We both had an interest in pursuing careers in aviation. And the time came when we both left flying to go into the ministry and head to Bible College and Seminary. We both did practicum work in our respective churches but there our paths diverged. He got involved in youth work at his church and things went well for awhile. But things weren’t all that good at home. There were things that needed to be worked out. Working them out would have been the God honoring way of dealing with them – God has given to us the ministry of reconciliation after all – but working things out is hard work. It’s painful work. It often means having to accept at least some responsibility for the way things are and maybe even changing our ways. It can be a difficult and painful process. But the world promised him an easier way. He didn’t have to work things out because there was a girl in his youth group that he got interested in and that was interested in him. The siren sang her song, and promised the world, and today his marriage has failed and he is out of the ministry and his testimony destroyed. What happened? He didn’t lash himself to the mast – he didn’t place safeguards in his life and he allowed himself to view his own pleasure and satisfaction as the most important pursuit in his life. And if we’re not careful, and if we’re not lashing ourselves to the mast and standing firm in the faith, that temptation can be there for everyone of us. All it takes is the right – or maybe we should say the wrong – set of circumstances in our lives, and the opportunity to present itself, and if we are not solidly grounded with our eyes focused on the Lord, the call of the Siren can pull at our hearts as and lead us down a path that can only end in heartache and sorrow. And the imminent danger of the Siren Song of Hedonism is that it destroys our testimony as it replaces our love and passion for God with a love and passion for something other than God.

The second Song the Siren sings is the Song of Materialism. This one’s pretty straight forward. It’s the craving, the desire, the longing for the things of this world, whether it be new clothes, bigger houses, faster cars - whatever the case may be. Again, none of those things is wrong in and of themselves. But what the song of the Siren invites us to do is to make these things our idols, make them into our gods. In many ways the Song of Materialism is the sound of money and Scripture teaches that we cannot serve both God and money because the love of the one will over rule our love for the other. Materialism is the desire for the things of this world at the expense of desiring God. In the Gospel of Luke Jesus tells a parable that goes like this …

“The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.” - Luke 12:16-21