Ballast

Giving credit where credit is due. This idea comes from a reading I had for Dr. Gaier's class.

Humility is an important thing. I think we've covered that in the past. Humility is also not one of the things that I'm best at. I think we've already covered that too. I think a good and accurate epitaph for me at this point in my life would be

"Humility and football were two things that were very important to Steve, he wasn't very good at either of them."

But that's not the point. What is the point is the secret to humility.

Ballast. You gotta have a lot of Ballast. Charles Spurgeon, whom you know as that really awesome preacher guy that Phil Byers reads about, was said to be such a great man because he was aware of just how broken and sinful he was. Spurgeon struggled with feelings of inadequacy because his sin was always before him. He was always aware of what was bringing him down. And it was exactly THAT, that enabled him to stay upright.

Ballast is a sailing term. It's used in boats. Ever wondered why boats never just tip over in the water? Well they are heavy obviously they sink into the water a little bit and don't just float on top. That's true. But what you might NOT have known is that the thing that is MAKING it heavy is ballast. Ballast refers to anything heavy that is loaded into the keel of the boat while it is being constructed. It is usually a heavy, dense, material like iron, cement, or sand. And this stuff just chills out at the bottom of the boat making it heavy. The larger of a boat you have the more water it will displace, meaning it will be more buoyant. Or put more simply. The bigger the boat, the more ballast you need.

That's what Spurgeon had. Instead of the high and lofty self image that so many of our leaders have today, Spurgeon had a keen sense of his ballast, his shortcoming, his sins. But probably without him knowing it, his ballast enabled him to become a really big ship. Too many leaders today build great big boats with tall masts and fancy sails. And that's great until the wind gets too strong or the water gets a little choppy. At the first sign of a storm the boat capsizes and it's ruined. Only by starting low, with a large ballast, is any large ship ever going to be able to float.

So, then, are you saying that we should sin more so that we can have a greater ballast? In the words of the Apostle Paul "by no means." In the words of Ben Taylor interpreting the words of the Apostle Paul "Hell no." We've all got enough sin to sink any ocean liner, so don't worry about that. It's not the sin that's the ballast, it's the awareness of the sin--the understanding of the sin. It's understanding ourselves in the context of sin that gives us ballast and help keeps us upright.