With My Own Eyes

            “Dr. Marvin, guess what?  Ahoy, I sail, I’m a sailor, I sail!”  You probably remember this hysterical scene from the 1991 Bill Murray movie “What About Bob?”  Though for me the scene is a bit too autobiographical.   You see, years ago, I also dreamed of sailing and being a sailor.  I watched with fascination from the shore as these sleek vessels silently and effortlessly cut through the water, nothing but the wind pushing them along.  (Insert lyrics from 80’s Christopher Cross ballad).  For me, sailing seemed to personify freedom, and I pictured myself sailing freely on the open water.   

            The problem was that I knew nothing about sailing.  I had never heard of a jib, jibe, or sheet.  I didn’t know the difference between the bow and the stern.  I didn’t know how to tie a good knot.  But that didn’t stop me from partnering with a friend and buying an old sailboat.  I couldn’t wait to pilot my new vessel out on the open water.  I wanted to experience that sense of freedom that I had witnessed from the shore.

            As you might guess, my maiden voyage as a sail boat captain was anything but an experience of freedom.  My emotions alternated between extreme fear and frustration.  Gusts of wind threatened to tip us over.  At other times my lack of sailing skill left us dead in the water.  What appeared so effortless from the shore was virtually impossible to someone with no knowledge or experience. 

            I learned an important lesson about freedom that day.  Freedom and discipline go hand-in-hand.  Only sailors who have disciplined themselves in the art of sailing are able to experience freedom.  Unless I became a disciplined sailor, I would never experience freedom in sailing. 

            The same principle is true in life.  We are only able to experience freedom when we learn and practice discipline.   Freedom is not the opposite of discipline.  Rather, it is the reward of discipline.   This seems to be quite a paradox in a culture where so many believe that freedom is the same as unrestraint.   It was the German poet and dramatist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who said, “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”  It doesn’t take us long to realize that a society in which every individual is unrestrained results in chaos and bondage.  Unrestrained drivers who approach a busy intersection, and in the name of freedom refuse to obey the traffic signal designed for their good, cause much pain and bondage for themselves and others.  Where there is no discipline there is no freedom

             True freedom comes from the discipline of yielding to the traffic signal of God’s Word, the Bible.  Its words contain life and power to make us truly free in this life and in the life to come.  Through the disciplines of meditation and application we are able to experience the freedom of living victorious, purposeful lives.

            By the way, I never did discipline myself in the art of sailing, and so I have never experienced that freedom.  I sold my share of the sail boat to my partner, and have since lived with that dream unfulfilled.  Wanted:  a cheap, old sailboat and a patient instructor.

2 Corinthians 5:21

[21] For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (ESV)