DAY 75

SET YOUR ANCHOR

Deuteronomy 28 & 29 and Mark 14:54-72

I grew up around boats. Nothing too large and often we would anchor. The trick was getting the anchor to hold fast in the bottom of the bay. We would throw it over the side and try and “set it” which is a short hand way of working to get in to grab hold. Often times it would slip, that is drag along the bottom.

I got thinking about anchors, and how hard it was some days to get it “to set”. I got thinking about them not because of the 14 verses of promised blessings for obedience and over 50 regarding curses. Instead I got thinking about them because of one verse, 28:47. In it we read “because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness…” these curses will come upon you. Amid all these laws we find the key: the need for joy and gladness. It is joy and gladness that will anchor in the people’s hearts their desire to serve God.

Just as there were days I had real trouble “setting the anchor” I also know we cannot order someone to be joyful. God knows that too! So how, how is anything “anchored in your heart?” Some of us would answer love. The problem is I love my wife and I love pizza. This kind of love is closer to the kind we are to love our spouses with. This is not the kind of love we see on TV shows or read about in most novels. This is “everlasting love”; the Hebrews call it hesed. You will see that phrase in the Psalms (everlasting love). It comes from a lifelong relationship. It comes from time invested. Think of all the time God has invested in this nation and they in God: Years, 40 years, in the desert no less.

It is also the kind of love Peter had for Jesus. It is why Peter followed even if it was at a distance. But then fear took over. Peter denied…once…then twice…then again. Peter swore and invoked a curse…on himself. Peter remembered…remembered His hesed and broke down and wept. Weeping is a natural reaction when that which anchors your heart slips. Had Peter not wept it would have indicated he didn’t care, but he did. In the midst of this terrible failure, the weeping is really some good news.

Which brings me to us, you and me: there will be days that our “anchor will slip”. Be careful not to “beat yourself up”, run to God quickly. Most of the curses seem to be associated with forgetting God as if they are no longer even trying to stay anchored. You and I know what that looks like. There certainly is no weeping involved. It is when we err and instead of claiming ownership we rationalize, we explain, we even shift responsibility. Peter didn’t and we shouldn’t – on the boat when I was growing up and the anchor slipped we jumped up, ran to the line, and simply re-set it! Sure we had drifted and often we weren’t where we suppose to be; the good news was we stopped going the wrong way.