Giving Up Control

Years ago, I participated in an Outward Bound course.  I traveled to Hurricane Island off the coast of Maine for a sailing and outdoor survival class.  For the sailing adventure we sailed a primitive boat.  There were no electronic gadgets or even winches that part and parcel of modern sailboats.  To steer the boat, we used an old-fashioned tiller.  To power the boat when not under sail we used six large oars. 

On one occasion we were sailing through heavy seas when the wooden tiller snapped.  The boat started careening towards the rocky coast.  We dropped the sails and frantically took out the large oars to try to get control of the boat, using one of the oars as a makeshift tiller.  Somehow, we managed to gain control and steer away from the coast and out into open ocean where we could make the necessary repairs.

Those few moments were terrifying.  We were at the mercy of the ocean’s waves.  We had little control of our course and direction.  Our destiny was written by the wind and the waves.

God commands Noah, “Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.” (Genesis 6)  God then gives Noah very specific directions for the construction of the ark.  Its size is detailed.  How many compartments and decks it requires is specified.  There is one detail missing.  There is no tiller.  There is no way to steer the ship!  This seems like a troubling design flaw.

Perhaps a tiller is not required because the entire world is flooded.  There is no dry land into which the ark might crash.  In addition, the sole purpose of the ark was saving Noah and his family as well as all the animals, two by two.  This ship was not trying to get anywhere.  There was no port on its itinerary.  Its intention was instead to safely float until the waters receded.

And yet there is larger lesson to be gleaned from the tiller’s absence.  Noah could not steer the boat even if he wanted to.  He had to trust his fate to God’s control.  The ark’s destination was not in Noah’s hands but God’s.  Its direction was determined by God and not by human hands.

There are times in our lives when we must be like Noah and relinquish control.  Often, we fight to regain control as if we are about to crash against a rocky coast.  Instead, we must trust in God and have faith.  We are carried forward by the waves.  However much we plan we are carried forward by life.

The incomparable poet of the sea, Pablo Neruda, writes,

I need the sea because it teaches me,
I don’t know if I learn music or awareness,
if it’s a single wave or its vast existence,
or only its harsh voice or its shining
suggestion of fishes and ships.
The fact is that until I fall asleep,
in some magnetic way I move in
the university of the waves.

There are lessons to be found in the waves of our lives.  There are teachings to be found in relinquishing control—if only momentarily.  We float on the sea of our lives. 

We are carried forward by destiny. We learn in the university of waves.