Sometimes life is hard.
And sometimes when life is hard, don’t we just want to quit?
To stick with the boat analogy, when we’re stuck in the middle of nowhere and nothing’s happening — no wind filling our sails — it’s easy to just sit down and wait it out.
Sometimes we tell us ourselves we don’t need a lot of wind to get moving again. Any sort of breeze will do.
A word of encouragement.
Some sort of acknowledgement for what we’ve done.
A pat on the back — literal or figurative — that will move us forward.
But maybe, just maybe, it’s not about waiting for the wind to fill our sails again.
Maybe it’s about grabbing those oars and making forward motion happen ourselves.
Hard work in the midst of the hard moments.
Yeah, it would be easier to sit down and wait it out.
But nothing happens when we don’t do nothing.
In Your Words: When life takes the wind out of your sails, what helps you grab the oars and keep rowing?
In Others' Words: Rowing Through the Hard Times http://bit.ly/2QRXFpA #quotes #perspective Share on X 'When life takes the wind out of your sails, it is to test you at the oars.' Quote by Robert Brault http://bit.ly/2QRXFpA #perseverance #challenges Share on X
Comments 5
I’m the guardian of a large number of dogs who were abandoned and abused.
Cancer be damned; it doesn’t matter how I feel. Today Barbara was horrified by the blood I had puked on the front porch, and so what. It meant nothing. Not a ‘heroic abnegation’; the blood was just meaningless.
If I don’t care for them, who will?
God will not ask “How’re you doin’, tiger?”. He’ll ask for an accounting of what I DID.
So I guess it’s this. Whether it’s under sail or you’re rowing, you’re in command of a lifeboat.
Life isn’t a banquet. It’s a slaughter.
So do the job, and save everyone you bloody well can.
Author
Andrew: To summarize — you’ve found a reason to keep living — to keep rowing — despite overwhelming odds. And I know most days there is very little wind in your sails.
Praying for you, my friend.
Having weathered an life and sanity sucking episode of anxiety a few months back, I’ve come to depend on rowing. Not only in my actions, but in my thoughts. Choosing to move forward through the grasping thoughts that threatened to pull me under. Learning to be still before God alone. Only there was it safe to sit a while, unpack my thoughts, and harness a breeze.
*a life… If only grammar errors were the worst thing that could possibly happen in life.
The last time I grabbed the oars and rowed my best, the rowboat moved in big circles. I got exercise and built up muscles, but we didn’t get anywhere except hysterical. Time to pray for even puffs of wind.