Ballast is a material that is used to provide stability in many sea vessels. It is usually a heavy substance that is placed in tanks low in the vessel to prevent possible disaster, commonly counteracting the tendency of a tip-over and eventual shipwreck. The lack of proper ballast has been the primary cause of many tragedies at sea, some, such as the Sewol ferry in Korea cost the lives of over 300 people. The ballast provides much-needed stability when the waters become treacherous and seas seem insurmountable. It is critical for the lifetime of a ship and should not be overlooked by any sailors desiring a long and successful career.

What about us?

The storms of a life fiercely following the lead of Jesus are unavoidable. To go where He is leading necessitates that you pass through them. How can you be sure that you will make it through those storms without making a shipwreck of your faith? What is the ballast in your life that steadies it in the most tumultuous of situations? When you receive a tragic phone call, what keeps you going? When your emotions tell you that everyone around you is against you, how do you stay in the fight?

Improper Ballast

Filling ballast tanks with the wrong substance does nothing good for the ship. In fact, the wrong ballast can actually achieve the opposite of the desired result, instead of leading to stability, it can induce weakness and vulnerability. Sometimes we cram our lives with things thinking they are going to give us what we need. We fill our life with unhealthy relationships, passions, and desires and then we act surprised when those things cause more problems than they are worth. They don’t enhance our life, but instead pull us beneath the surface.

Finding the right Ballast

We must be careful to not expect our emotions to carry us through rough times. Neither can we always count on the relationships that we have around us, even the best of them. Our stability cannot come from ourselves. Instead, our stability must come from the Lord.

He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. Psalm 40:2

We need to fill our tanks with ballast that comes from God: the reliability that comes from the truth of His word, the peace that is experienced from the love that He has, and the hope for eternity from the promises that He has given. Anything else that we look to for stability in life will eventually shift beneath us. 

The storms are coming, make sure your tanks are full.