The horizon.

This summer, I learned that when you're feeling seasick, you look at the horizon. It restores your body's internal sense of balance and center of gravity.

The ocean is rarely quiet. It's currents trying to pull you this way and that, waves, wind, and storms. You can't just jump out of the boat when you start to feel queasy. So what are you going to do? You have no other option but to find the horizon and glue your eyes to it. Why? It's the only thing that's fixed. It's the only guarantee you have. It doesn't change the fact that you're in the middle of a storm, but it changes you.

Such is life. We're all navigating this vast ocean in our little fishing boats, often with no land in sight. The storms are inevitable; the wind and waves are all too familiar. Yet, there is a horizon, and yes, I'm going to say that Jesus is the horizon. But it goes beyond that. Jesus wants to restore our souls' balance. This world has turned everything upside down. We all struggle to find any center of gravity, anything that will steady us through the storm. And He offers to be that anchor for the soul. He who who can tell the storms outside and the storms within us, "Peace, be still." He may or may not change the fact that we're in the middle of the storm, but He changes us.

I can't help but think that maybe the author of Hebrews had the sea in mind when He said, "let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith..." To fix your eyes on something takes concentrated effort. We are so easily distracted; no wonder we get seasick so easily. I feel it now, even as I write this. My heart wants to push away from God, the only Horizon I have in this life. But where else can I turn? I have found nothing else.

May God give us the grace to fix our eyes on Himself.