Is Your Heart Properly Equipped?

Photo source:  http://surfboardline.com/gerry-lopez/

Last week, I got to go paddle boarding at Watts Bar Lake in East Tennessee. I was visiting my uncle and it was his first time paddle boarding. The paddle board he had borrowed from a friend was missing its fin, and my spare fin did not fit the fin box of his board, so we had to make do without one. 

I let him use my board so he could have one that was properly outfitted, while I tried to manage with the board that had no fin. It’s amazing the difference an experience can be when you’re not properly equipped versus when you are.

The purpose of a fin for a paddle board is to make the board go straight and keep it stable. I quickly found out what it was like to try and paddle without a fin:  my board wanted to go in every direction other than straight! Add to that the wind we were experiencing and I was just being blown around in circles unable to control the board at all. It felt like when you’re in a bumper car and you start spinning around. No matter what you try to do to try to make the car stop spinning, not much really works. I wasn’t able to get to where I was trying to go, and if I did, it took A LOT longer without the fin.

That’s what our spiritual life can be when the Holy Spirit is not living inside of us. We are not properly equipped to remain on a straight path. We’ll go in every direction, jumping from one new “self-help” gimmick to the next, oftentimes finding ourselves wasting time just going around in circles with no real results. And we can’t stop our spinning in circles in our own strength. We need the Holy Spirit to stabilize us.

How do you get the Holy Spirit inside you? It’s pretty simple. You just admit your need for Him and accept the invitation He’s already extended to you, and in turn invite Him into your heart. He does the rest. And you can rest in that, trusting He will direct you on a path that is straight and stable.