My Anchor in a Storm

By Emily Jamieson

There is a grand difference between believing in God and knowing Him.

I began discovering this reality my sophomore year of high school; a freshly torn ACL leaving me reeling and wondering about my identity. So much of my worth came from being a soccer player. While I grew up in a home with a family that went to church (I can’t remember a time when I didn’t believe in God), I had few friends in my circle who shared my beliefs.

My injury tossed me into the waves of fear and grief—and while this season was one I would never want to go through again—I would never want to take it back, either. This was an “anchor moment” in my life—one where I was grounded in my faith as a result of Jesus proving that He is the only secure place—that He is the sole source of my strength and hope in the midst of a storm.

“That hope is real and true, an anchor to steady our restless souls, a hope that leads us back behind the curtain to where God is.” Hebrews 6:19 (The Voice)

From my limited knowledge of boating, I began thinking about this idea of anchoring. What does it mean to be anchored? Grounded? Secured in place? What things have anchored me throughout my life and caused me to be still? What has given me security, peace, and a sense that God’s presence is with me?

I have “dropped anchor” at times out of exhaustion: because I ran too fast and used up all of my resources. I have also dropped anchor because the scenery was so beautiful I wanted to stay in that place for a time and soak it all in. But to be honest, the times I needed that anchor most were when the waves were high and the weather was uncertain, and a storm was brewing.

Oh, have I hit storms in my life! Those were the seasons I dropped anchor out of pure necessity and out of a deep need to know where the bottom was. I was desperate in those times to have a connection to something firm because everything else was being tossed up and away in the waves.

The Summer I Tore my ACL

The first storm I can remember arrived the summer I tore my ACL. I thought the sum of my worth was in being an accomplished athlete so when I tore my ACL, my identity was also torn away. Later, fresh out of surgery, still on crutches and with 9 months of rebuilding body and heart ahead of me, the Lord sent me a line … a line connected to Him.

Her name was Susan and she became my Young Life leader, mentor, and treasured friend. Do you know that we sometimes serve others as the line connecting to the anchor? This bright-eyed, faith-filled woman served as a link in the chain, filling the gap until I grew my own unique connection to Jesus.

She was bright-eyed and hopeful, met me for coffee, pursued me, opened a Bible with me, and helped me learn that Scripture really was like living water (and not like the dry sand I had experienced!)

We met throughout high school. And when it was time for me to go to college, she sent cards. I met mentors and teachers during that time who also took me in and encouraged me in my faith. And then, when I returned home after graduation, Susan invited me to come to her home every Tuesday morning before work. She made oatmeal or banana bread and occupied her small children with cartoons and cereal while she gave me her full attention for 45 precious minutes. She shared honestly about her faith, about what God was teaching her, about her struggles as a wife and parent, the pain of her miscarriage. But mostly? She listened to me intently: encouraging me to hope as I processed my first jobs, learned how to build a budget, navigated dating the man who would become my husband, while lacing each conversation with the truth about Jesus.

The time she spent with me was invaluable.

A Beautiful Image of Discipleship

Susan walked with while she was a young, working woman with no kids, then continued to invite me into her world while she juggled her life, husband, and kiddos. It was Susan’s demonstration of making space for me (and all my chaos) in my early 20’s that set me up to recognize:

My calling to be a disciple of Christ and to make disciples does not change regardless of the season. Sure, the circumstances, the scenery, and the number of interruptions might change, but the invitation from God to be and make disciples gives life and adventure that LASTS.

Susan is only one of the many who strengthened my connection to the anchor of my soul. SO MANY have discipled me through the years—whether in one transformative conversation, during a season of friendship, or over years of investment. To BE a disciple is to MAKE disciples. If we are following Jesus and living our lives authentically and vulnerably, then people will not be able to help but see Jesus and be compelled by Him! And note that I did not say, “living our lives perfectly”.

The most encouraging people are those who reveal the storms, difficulty, and missteps in their lives while acknowledging God’s perfect presence, faithfulness, and restorative touch in the midst of the pain.

Anchoring Ourselves in Gratitude

You know those moments in life where you feel compelled to take a picture, knowing deep in your soul that this might be a taste of how God intended the world to be? Have you had that feeling of clarity? A wide-eyed understanding of WHO He is and WHO you are? Those are the times I pause, give attention, and express gratitude, letting the truth of God be sealed in me. When the storms break and the sun is out, I have learned to seek mentors and friends to share and soak in the truth of God with me, because all of life is a transition, and another storm is surely coming.

Over time, I have come to see that what I know is true in the sunshine must often be hammered out in the storm.

What I have experienced in the light is STILL true in the dark.

And I desperately need people around me, older, younger, further along and trailing behind, that will spur me on and remind me of what is true. I need them to hold me accountable, and not let me move backward.

“Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God’s will.” ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

There have been seasons of sunshine—relationships, marriage, children, and ministry—where I have transformed, bronzed in the glimmer of the gloriousness of God.

But those same things … relationships, marriage, children, and ministry have offered storms that have tested and deepened my trust in Jesus—the anchor who is never changing and always faithful.

Jesus – the anchor who never changes and is always faithful.

I have ruptured my achilles tendon, endured a miscarriage, birthed a sweet boy we were told would have uncontrollable seizures by the time he turned one. My husband and I have experienced personal failure and loss. We have left our jobs with nothing waiting on the other side. We have moved our family to the heart of a crazy college town and started over.

Yet, in that chaos and in those waves, I have simultaneously been bolstered by the presence of Jesus, by His comfort, His love, His care, and His people.

Women and men, young and old, in varying stages of faith, have discipled me through it all.

And here I am, married to a tall drink of water, with four little boys ages 10 to 2, living in a college town, sharing our home with two young women who we get to love and invest in daily, writing and speaking to women of all ages, partnering with my husband in ministry to raise up leaders in the next generation, giving my life away to discipleship as I juggle kids, oatmeal, and cartoons, and I could not LOVE the life God has invited me into any more than I do!

His word is alive and his promises are true. I love him and I trust him with my life. And I could not be more grateful to those who have gone before me who lived courageously as disciples and invited me into their journey. They fed me until I knew how to feed myself. It is their pattern that has shaped me and given my life wings.

A Verse for Meditation

”The Lord God has given Me the tongue of disciples, That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.”  Isaiah 50:4