The Lesson of the Sextant

Do you feel lost in life, adrift in seas of trouble?

Sailors have long depended on a tool called the sextant to help them know where they are and where they need to go.

Don't know what a sextant is? In this day of GPS systems, navigational computers in cars, accurate maps available on the internet, and air travel; most people never learn what one is.

Hundreds of years ago, sailors who wanted to go from one place to another had to have a way to find their way back home. Maps weren’t especially dependable, and there weren’t any of the other tools that we depend on today. So, they depended on an instrument called a sextant. The sextant is an instrument that lets you take a measurement of a star such as Polaris or of the sun in relation to the horizon. By knowing where these heavenly bodies are in relation to the horizon near your home port lets you know how far north or south of this point you are. Thus, you can know your latitude. As you travel further away from home, you can always look to the heavens and take a measurement. Then, you merely sail back towards your own latitude and then make a turn right or left to get back home.

In life, you will stray far from where you started. Yet no matter how far you go, you can always find your way if you but focus on heaven for guidance. When you have drifted far on the seas of life, buffeted by the storms of trouble; when you feel that you are most lost with no land in site, no rock to stand on; stop and take a bearing from the one constant – God. In Him, you will find the direction that you need to go. To find your way on earth, look to heaven.

Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe.

Psalm 61:1-3

"Men know that the sea is dangerous and the storms are terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient enough reason for remaining ashore"

I wrote this devotional in 2003 as an encouragement for a friend as she was off to school at the Merchant Marine Academy. She traveled some troubled seas herself and is now back in landlocked Phoenix, but will likely travel again. I just stumbled upon my original and thought I'd post it. Dedicated to Liana W.