What's Overhead?

Sometimes life feels like one of those crab boats bouncing around in the Bering Sea. People say that being a commercial fisherman is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.

Crabbing in the Bering Sea has nothing on just doing ordinary life. Navigating your way from Sunday through Saturday. A friend of mine, who used to work the second shift for a large city police force, said that by the end of the week he would begin to think that the whole world had lost its mind. "And," he would add, "I could tell I was about to lose my own mind because of the craziness out there!"

Like one of those boats bouncing around on the sea, life rolls us. We are in danger of losing our footing, or we just go over...grabbing at doors and bunks and people standing nearby to stop our slide.

There are odd little habits we pick up along the way, aren't there? One of the things I do is check the sky first thing in the morning. I do the same thing at night.

The alarm goes off, I crawl out of bed, and head out the front door. I pick up two local newspapers that are delivered to the house, and then I stop. I stand three feet from the front door and look straight up.

I do that for two reasons. The first reason is to see if the sky is clear or if we are in for a cloudy day here in northern Indiana. The second reason is to locate a star that I have come to count on. I don't know the name of the star. I don't know the constellation in which it finds itself. I just know the star is right above my head...straight up. When I've found my star I step back in the house and move on into the day.

There is something about knowing the star is where it needs to be. It tells me that no matter how crazy life can get, I'm still here...and I'm not lost. Not to God. The star above my head reminds me of the God who doesn't lose sight of me. The God who always is.

What was it God said to Moses when Moses demanded to know the name of God? "I AM...I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE." Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6), tells us not to be anxious - God has his eye on us. God cares for us.

In the early morning dark I step outside the front door, pick up my newspapers, and locate my star. It's just something I need to do.