Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments; love is not love
Which alters when alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixèd mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ ring bark
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come.
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom:
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
–William Shakespeare
In the stillness of my room, I sit – and feel the darkness. The deep darkness. It seems to swallow up my soul.
God, if your are near, then why do I feel this way — so exposed. So unsettled.
I sense the enemy lurking in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity to strike. My spirit sees him, feels him. It knows what he wants. He seeks to steal all that’s good, once again. He watches and waits.
But something has changed. Something has shifted. And I do not give in like I used to. I pause, and the enemy shudders. Someone is standing where fear and shame used to be.
And his voice is louder.
Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
“Come,” he said.
Matthew 14:22-29, NIV
Fear and Love. They are two opposing entities. And they are at war with one another for our worship. Our gaze will always settle on either one or the other. So if we know God loves us, then why do we still fear?
When the disciples saw Jesus on the water, their first response was fear. But his words made them pause because they knew his voice. And when Peter fixed his eyes on Jesus, fear fled.
I want us to understand together the call to our hearts in this, so that we can begin to live free in the freedom we already have in Christ Jesus. As in both the poem and the passage of scripture, there is a commonality of real love. It is fixed.
It is an eternal and unchanging truth.
And when we steady our gaze on this kind of love, fear fades and the storm’s fury settles into a whisper of what it was.
No wonder Jesus so often said not to fear, but to trust. Because he knew we could not do one without giving up the other.
It is time to fix our eyes on our one true love, which is Christ. He is “an ever-fixèd mark” leading those travelers who are lost and weary — guiding them home.
And when we do fix our eyes on him, and his love fills us to the depths of the ocean of our souls, then others will see. And the very same love that fills us will guide them home too.
Will you join me in bringing them home together?
If so, pray this prayer with me …
Father God,
We stand here before you in surrender. Use us for your glory. Love others through us with your perfect peace and love. It’s time. Gather us from all the nations and anoint us with your words and actions to bring in the lost, the lonely, and the shattered. May our present sufferings give us the compassion and empathy needed to draw the weary and wandering soul home to you. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen and amen.
