When I
was growing up, I had an inflatable plastic punching dummy. It was about as
tall as I was and had a smiling face painted on it. My challenge was to hit it
hard enough to make it stay down. But no matter how hard I tried, it always
bounced right back up again. The secret? There was a lead weight in the bottom
that always kept it upright. Sailboats operate by the same principle. The lead
weights in their keels provide the ballast to keep them balanced and upright in
strong winds.
It’s
like that in the life of a believer in Christ. Our power to survive challenges
resides not in us but with God, who dwells within us. We’re not exempt from the
punches that life throws at us nor from the storms that inevitably threaten our
stability. But with full confidence in His power to sustain us, we can say with
Paul, “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed,
but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not
destroyed” (2 Cor. 4:8-9).
Join the many travelers through life who through deep waters of pain and suffering embrace with unshakable confidence the truth that God’s grace is sufficient and that in our weakness He is made strong (12:9). It will be the ballast to your soul.
