Cape Hold with HopeI always liked that song that says “My anchor holds and grips the solid rock”. The mental picture I get is of that heavy anchor burrowing itself into that rock so firmly that nothing can dislodge it—it’s there! And once there, I don’t need to ever worry about it coming loose. That song applied our salvation to that fact. ‘Be very sure, be very sure, your anchor holds and grips the solid rock”—the Rock, of course, being Jesus Christ.
But nothing is said about the anchor chain, which is attached between the ship and the anchor! The anchor, once lowered, depends on that anchor chain to lift it back into the ship when time comes to leave shore.When a ship comes into port, or whenever it gets ready to depart, the anchor chain becomes the important item. Over again and again, that chain is all that keeps the ship from drifting away.
I had never thought about it before, but when I saw the picture above—four men, struggling to guide that chain into right position when it is lowering or lifting the anchor off the ocean floor—no small task, as any sailor would know. Large engines will do the lifting, but unless it is guided into position, it can tangle. A large carrier, such as the Nimitz, has a twelve “shots” of anchor chain, each “shot” being 90 feet, and each link in that chain weights 350 pounds, for a total of 29,500 pounds of chain to hold a 60,000 pound anchor!
King David expressed this in Psalm, Psalm 121:8
“the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore”.How amazing! He watches every step we take; and every minute of the way He is with us!
One Sunday morning I awoke early and looked outside—there had definitely been a lot of snow overnight. So much that even the snowplows had not touched our road but were too busy clearing the major highways. But I had already missed two Sundays at church. Could I make the fifteen miles in safety driving over to Palmer?
As I started my faithful old Ford truck, I could surely count on my 4-wheel drive and my studded snowtires to get me there—but what about the traffic and crazy drivers in cars who didn’t obey the laws and didn’t have good sense? As it turned out, I would actually witness 3 car wrecks before I had travelled 3 miles!
Another scripture came to my mind: Psalm 23. As I repeated it to myself, the words felt like the sword kings and queens used to knight individuals in royal England. Certain verses stood out that I could almost feel them touching and anointing me.
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. .”
All surrounding me were mountains, their beauty was awesome. Palmer, where I attended church, was nestled beneath Pioneer Peak. Whenever I saw that peak, I instantly identified it with tiny Palmer, but at that moment, it became a symbol of something much greater than just a village; it became a visual reminder of another scripture David penned as he began his psalm:
(Psalm 121:1-2)“I lift up my eyes to the mountains---where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot sliip---he who watches over you will not slumber nor sleep. The LORD watches over you—the LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all harm---he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
King David also expressed this in verse 8. He wrote:
“The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.”
Most times the trials we go through have a purpose—to hopefully draw us into His arms for a warm snuggle there, just as tiny infants love to do with mom. Notice: infants. Until I can fully release myself from ME, I will be too big to fit properly in those arms of His, where His strength is made perfect in my weakness! When our bellies get full and we become satisfied, we can enjoy a wonderful snooze that usually follows. Its the same with the Spirit of God that makes us to be like the shepherd’s sheep that lie down in green pastures after gorging on food. But do you know what? Sheep can never lie down when they are afraid! This is that peace that passeth all understanding.Finding a suitable anchorage always concerned sailors. Along the coast of Cape Horn in 1578 Sir Francis Drake's chaplain wrote:"The winds were such as if the bowels of the earth had set all at liberty, or as if all the clouds under heaven had been called together to lay their force upon that one place. The seas...were rolled up from the depths, even from the base of the rocks, as if they had been a scroll of parchment...The impossibility of anchoring or spreading any sail, the most made seas, the lee shores, the dangerous rocks, the contrary and most intolerable winds...all offered us such small likelihood of escaping destruction, that if the special providence of God himself had not supported us, we could never have endured this woeful state..."Ruth Jones' "In Times Like These" speaks of such situations where all that can be done by man's efforts is exhausted and were it not for the LORD, we could not make it through our trials to lower our anchor into the safe "Cape Hold-with-Hope".One of the most fascinating men who ever lived was a sea captain named James Cook. I have always been interested in reading about him, because I have traveled to many of the places where he explored the world of the late 1700s in a creaky sailing vessel, Resolution, with a sister-ship named Discovery.Where I live here in Alaska is on a bluff across the bay of Cook Inlet, which goes into Prince William Sound, named by Cook for the English king's third son. Our largest city, Anchorage, lies at its entrance. Captain Cook's two ships anchored here for repairs after a near-disastrous leak had sprung in the Resolution, but on his charts it was called "Cape Hold-with-Hope". They had left England to find the elusive passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic, but the passage was never found, and afterwards they would head out into the Alaska peninsula, which in turn fractures into the Aleutian chain.Surely, all of us are familiar with such moments where terror could overwhelm our minds when all about us we see the waves roaring and rising above our heads. Cook had been shocked to discover worms had eaten away at his ship, and previously,had coral ripped the hull and ice coated the rigging as they navigated through the icebergs of Antarctica. It was never easy, nor was it ever certain they would return back to England safely.Will God be there for us in such perils? The Apostle Paul told of God's angel, "who stood by me" when he was shipwrecked and "in the deep" for three days and nights. Peter knew such times when Jesus had beckoned him to come walk on the water. He had made it look so easy...yet fear began to attach itself to Peter's senses at the sight of the waves, and he began to sink. But at his cry, Jesus' hand took his, and it became his anchor chain to the Solid Rock.This morning, and as I lay here in my bed with this laptop computer writing this article, I too am anchored in that certain "Cape Hold-with-Hope." for repairs of a different kind, for on inspection I have learned that my vessel has cancerous cells again eating away at MY hull. Perhaps someone who reads this is so inflicted, or is undergoing a stressful time. All around us Satan flashes pictures of destruction. They look ominous. Yet I know what I must do---what I have done many times before:Stay aboard the Resolution and anchor in Cape Hold-with-Hope!~~~~~Dear friend, if you are fighting to get into safe anchorage--remember who it is that calms the seas. He may be asleep in the back of your boat somewhere, seemingly obvilious to your concerns. But remember this--no Good Captain ever grumbles or is angry when his sailors wake Him up. He’ll instantly be at our steering wheel at the very hint of danger.After all, it's His ship....provided we’ve let ours become His.MARY E. ADAMS
