Usually, historical narratives don't leave me meditating on spiritual truths. But this one did. Besides all the fascinating minutiae about different sizes of frigates and sloops, and the politics governing each nation's choices in the war, there was a LOT of talk about ballast.
Are you familiar with the concept of ballast? Wikipedia defines ballast as "heavy material, such as gravel, sand, iron, or lead, placed low in a vessel to improve its stability." Ballast is something I've heard about for years, but it never impacted me the way it did this time.
Heavy material is present in the ship of each of our lives. Maybe you're struggling right now with a battle that is out of your hands: the choices of a loved one, infertility, a divorce, a physical challenge. The designers of each ship in the War of 1812 had determined what amount of ballast, or heaviness, would work best for their particular design. Whatever the heaviness is in your life, the first thing to remember about ballast is that It was designed by God.
Something else I had not given much thought to was how ballast is used. I always thought of it as a stack of bricks or sandbags, heaped in the hold of a vessel and never thought of again.
In reality, the battles in this book were filled with examples of how a captain saved his ship, or lost it to the enemy, depending on how he used his ballast. It is moved around even during a challenging time, in order to give the ship an advantage of position in the water, or a better angle for the sails to catch the wind. The same is true of the heaviness in your life. Not only was this ballast designed by God, but It is there to help you.
Look again at the definition. Ballast is placed low in a vessel... doesn't it seem like the heaviness that overwhelms us hits us in our weakest point?...and its purpose is to improve stability. Remember the verses in II Corinthians about glorying in infirmities and distresses? Verse 10 reminds us that "when I am weak, then am I strong." That's right. Just like so many other principles in God's kingdom, this one is backward. It is in our time of greatest heaviness that God intercedes with HIS strength. Because really, which of us can make lasting progress in our own strength? Isn't it more effective to rest in His strength? He designed the heaviness in our lives to exactly match the design of our "ship." He gave it to us to help us, and most importantly, It can bring us His strength, if we let it.
So what is your response to the ballast in your life today? Are you fighting it? Are you scouring the hold of your life for anything that doesn't please you, and throwing it overboard in a fit of self-confidence? I encourage you to embrace the heaviness, the weariness, the illness, the unanswered questions, the heartache that God has placed in your life today. Thank Him for offering you His strength for your weakness. It's the best way to live.
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