Allowing for Course Correction

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​Every summer growing up, my siblings and I went to camp. In hindsight, it was an amazing experience which I grossly underestimated as a young girl. A month was plenty of time to learn archery, horseback riding, tennis, swimming, sailing, and capture the flag. 
 
At this time, my family owned a lake house in upstate New York. The lake was beautiful, and its waters stretched about one square mile. It was the perfect place to practice my sailing skills.
 
Sailing the Little Sunfish on the lake was like heaven. By myself I would manage the lines as the wind blew and steer with the rudder, all while praying the centerboard didn’t get caught in muck if I got too close to shore.

​Getting too close to shore was a real concern. When the wind blew in the direction I wanted to go, sailing was easy-peasy. But tacking against the wind meant I had to adjust my lines, work the tiller, and continuously course-correct.
 
Actually, most of sailing is continuous course-correcting. And so, my friend, is life.
 
Life is a constant monitoring of circumstances, adjusting when necessary to aim at our destination and avoid crashing. The good news is Holy Spirit is always working in our circumstances, inviting us to course-correct when the winds of life change.
 
We aren’t sailing alone. We have a Guide, a Teacher, a Comforter (John 16:13).With Holy Spirit, sailing means working with the wind to make progress. Good sailing sets the sails to allow the wind to work for us. Holy Spirit is good at that.
 
God’s Word tells us that He ordained every day of our life before one of them came to be (Psalm 139:16). The circumstances that life brings your way aren’t meant to fight against you like a strong wind— they are meant to work for you to get to your destination, your destiny. 
 
What if, instead of fighting the winds of life, we allow them to work for us? They would  catapult us into our destiny instead of delaying us.
 
We have a choice: We can either hold the lines of our sails and the tiller of our rudder with Holy Spirit guiding us, or we can allow the circumstances of life to keep delaying us, leaving us frustrated, angry, and discouraged.
 
That is how the devil wants us to respond. Jesus told us the devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10), and when we hold on too tight to the lines and tiller, Holy Spirit doesn’t have room to course-correct. We can let the devil steal our joy, our peace, our relationships, our destiny, or we can learn to sail with Holy Spirit guiding us, moving and growing in joy and peace. 
 
David is a great example of someone who continuously invited Holy Spirit to course-correct him. In Psalm 139 he prays, “Examine me through and through; find out everything that may be hidden within me. Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares. See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on, and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting ways...”
 
David wasn’t perfect. In fact, he made a lot of terrible mistakes. But because he remained sensitive to Holy Spirit’s guidance, he was able to course-correct. 
 
This is our model for life. God doesn’t expect us to do it alone. Today, let’s make David’s prayer the cry of our hearts, too. Let’s invite Holy Spirit to continuously course-correct us and lead us deeper into our destiny.

About the Author

Hi! I'm Anne Say. My husband and I have a blended family of five adult children (five sons and daughters-in-love), and nine grandchildren! I am a retired teacher (and former office manager). These days I get to combine all of my experience into helping people make sense of life and faith. God has called me to people who are stuck in their faith and who've lost their sense of identity. I help people make sense of the past, see clearly in the present, and catch a vision for the future.

Get to know Anne more at www.annebsay.com

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