Friday, February 13, 2009

About the name: "Ballasts and Sails"

The ballast of a ship moors it and keeps it steadfast; it is its constancy and resides as  its firm base.
The sail of a ship is the uppermost directional fabric that navigates its movement via the wind.
An operational, seaworthy vessel needs both.
And in our lives, so do we. 
Reason and vision. Common sense and dreams. Duty and delight.
Ballast and Sail. 

I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, my soul knows very well.”
“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts.
And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:14, 23-24


Do you know yourself?

God knows us intricately; He made us, formed us and He alone truly knows us.

But what about you. Do you know yourself?

What do I mean?

Well, for instance, I know that I am, at my core:
--Visionary, ‘big idea’, perfectionistic & a dreamer
--Generally pessimistic and critical
--Emotionally influenced (that is feelings run strong, forceful and often)
--Introverted (that is, being around people takes energy from me)

This baseline of this personality/temperament/nature was intact at birth. (And I’m not just talking about the universal, sinful component in all of us that could be represented by some of the above list. I’m talking about my default mode of thinking, perceiving and responding. I’m also not saying any of the above is intrinsically sinful. For example, being critical of my child’s choice to wear shorts on a 32 degree day is probably wise.)

Understanding myself in this has proven very helpful, how?
--In my relationships with others, including marriage, family & ministry
--Identifying & fighting off sin in my own life
--Seeking to use my uniqueness to serve the cause of Christ.

I find my strengths to potentially aide me to:
--Give vision & direction, holding high the standard of the wonder and goodness of God’s designs (marriage, ministry, homemaking, relationships, etc.) and the joy found therein
--Seeking & not being satisfied with anything less than 110%
--Be Discerning
--Be Empathetic, compassionate, with a heart-level worship & ministry mentality

I also find my default weaknesses daunting: I struggle with:
--Perserverence in duty
--Same-old, same-old non-imaginative existence (& that is the majority of life!)
--Discontentment, judgementalism
--All the ways feelings can lead one astray

But knowing this about myself helps me when I deal with life because I know where my tendencies lie. Both how they influence me wisely and how they impact me for wrong:
--So, if I find myself growing weary with my boring life that is so predictable, I can know it is probably not my circumstances that I need to change (and then I’ll be okay) but my own heart that needs to run to Christ & find relief.
--If I feel like my husband doesn’t appreciate me, I can identify the strong inaccurate message of my emotions and instead look at all the ways Jon shows me he does.
--If I grow impatient because of the task-orientation of a particular ministry, I can influence and encourage others in their heart orientation of love even while I jump in and complete the task right along with them.
--If I approach an opportunity at church and start to think of excuses to miss, I realize my introverted tendencies might be getting in the way of my desire to serve others and I need to adjust my thinking (and ask for God’s help.)

Do you know yourself?

In my next post, I’ll discuss categories. No label is absolute, but generalities in characteristic can prove helpful.
Are you nore of a Sail? or typically act out of being a Ballast?
(And just to let you know, we each need to manifest qualities of both.)

View Part II here: About the Name, part 2

2 comments:

  1. very nice, Elaine!!! I just received your Christmas letter which listed this blog so I am checking it out and will continue to do so.

    bev williams

    by the way, your newsletter isd very original and imaginative, as usual!!!!

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  2. Hi Elaine! I finally get what "ballast" means after listening to a ballast and sail analogy by Charles Simeon. I came on to see how you are using it, now that I get it! Simeon used it for a different analogy--ballast as our self-humiliation, sails as our God-adoration (his point was that we need both and that we cannot have a high sail without a balancing ballast). Piper's biography on him was among the most captivating ones I've heard of all Piper's biographies. I highly recommend it if you haven't heard it already: http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/brothers-we-must-not-mind-a-little-suffering.

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