Daily Devotion:

Title: Sailor Left the Sea

Date: January 31, 2013

A sailor lived beside the sea. The tough town where he was raised was a place of making do, getting by, and bar fights. Daily he fished from his dory, rowing out at dawn and sailing home under the setting sun. From his father he learned to fish, and drink, and fight, and was proficient at all three. As hard as the rocky coast beneath him, as hard as the sea around him, as hard as these, his heart became. When our sauced sailor swung an oar at the head of his boyhood friend and nearly killed him, our sailor resolved to leave.

On the next day's dawn our sailor took that oar, tied to it a bag of clothes and walked inland, determined not to stop or settle until someone asked him, "What's that odd-shaped stick you are carrying over your shoulder?" Only then, so he believed, could he leave his troubles behind. 

Weeks later in a pretty little mountain town, a lovely woman asked the very same question, so he settled down and married her. Soon after, he began to drink, and the violence returned. Years later, our sailor discovered that although we may run or walk away from our troubles, we often carry our troubles within us. 

We may change this and that on the outside, but unless we change inside, wherever we go, we carry ourselves.

Let's Pray:  Dear God, if we run to change, let us run to You, that we may change what matters. Amen.

Here’s a Thought:  Wherever we go, whoever we are comes with us.

Last Thought: Thank you for your support.