Perspective

I went to Marina del Rey on Saturday with my daughter. We drove in, parked, put some coins into the meter, and strolled around a bit. There were nice sidewalks under shade trees, next to beautiful lawn areas. There were covered picnic areas, a decorative pedestrian bridge, clean public restrooms, and of course the view of the boats coming and going was spectacular. But I was worried that my daughter would get the wrong idea about the place. All she was seeing was the park-like setting of the dry part. I had a much more in-depth knowledge of the waterways, slips, chandleries, pump-out stations and even the harbor patrol. Because I had used the marina as a boater. I knew that they had a very tall flagpole with a huge American flag right at the entrance to the harbor, and that it was placed there to guide boaters into the entrance to the marina from the ocean. And it worked! I remember the first time I motored into the marina and had no idea where the actual entrance was - except that we figured it had to be near the flag and it was.

My brother-in-law and I had purchased a boat in San Pedro, and were moving it up to Ventura. On the way, a blockage developed in one of the cooling injectors on one part of the exhaust system. That allowed a rubber hose to burn off, and exhaust started spewing into the cabin and cockpit area. We pushed on, because we were a mile or two offshore at the time, but soon we began to feel the effects of the carbon monoxide. We said things to each other that were sillier than usual, and that's saying a lot. Doug climbed up on the fore deck, to get some fresh air, and I hung my head over the side next to the helm. But it didn't work well enough and we were both starting to get nauseous. So we shut down the main engine and just waited for the breeze to clear the fumes. It didn't take long to go from a lazy, happy feeling of confused ease, to a rising panic: we were miles from shore by that time, and we couldn't rely on our vessel to get us home safely.

That's when we spotted the flagpole, and with a glance at the chart, we knew Marina del Rey was our hope and salvation. It was a beautiful day, we had lots of fuel, water, food, and we had left plenty early, so we were in no hurry - we just floated around for a good hour or so to be sure our heads were as clear as they usually are, and finally we started up the engine and did our best to breathe the fresh air coming over the windshield, or along the sides of the vessel. We put the power to her, and made a mad dash for that flagpole. We mush have done alright, because we didn't get sick the rest of the trip, and we motored into Marina del Rey and tied up at the public dock. It took us a while to find that mooring, and then to find the chandlery, but in the end we stayed one night, fixed the boat and left the next morning at dawn.

So you can understand why I thought of the place as more than just a park. It's all in the perspective. I don't have a boat large enough to go out on the ocean right now, so I doubt Kristen will ever see the side of Marina del Rey that I saw all those years ago - it will have to be up to her imagination I suppose. But isn't it that way with much in our lives? We see things from the perspective of our experience, and have a hard time understanding that others have vastly different experiences with the very same things.

Our heavenly Father sees things much differently than we do - and it must tickle Him when we beg to get out of some 'trial' or other unhappy time only because we can't see it from His perspective. He sees the maturing, growing, new found wisdom, and developing that comes from all the things He allows into our lives. We may only see the pain, the fear, and we may see some of the results, but most often not right away.

But just as Doug and I had to trust the landmark of that Flagpole, and the chart which told us that was the way to safety - even though we were in a mental fog at the time - we need to

2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.