Setting The Compass

by GRIERSON, G. | Category: N/a | Jan 2003

We were visiting a small fishing harbour on the west coast of Ireland. Moored at the quayside was a yacht waiting to go out to sea. The size of the wheel that steered the yacht was impressive, but what caught my eye was the instrument that took prominence next to the wheel: a ship's compass, an essential piece of equipment for navigating the seas, with its needle always indicating a fixed point and the captain able to set his course by it, aided by his navigation charts.

That reminds me of our Christian lives. We need fixed points to steer by. Moses had one. We read of it in Hebrews: 'By faith Moses, � choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible'. (Heb.11:24-27)

Moses' eye was on the invisible and by it he set his compass, and that determined the direction and goal of his life, regardless of the consequences.

Jim Elliot was another man of God who had set his compass and lived his life accordingly. He wrote the words, 'He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.'

In his efforts to win the Auca Indians of South America for the Lord, he eventually gave his all, paying the ultimate price of his life, killed by those primitive people he was seeking to reach, along with his fellow missionaries.(1) He was no loser. He only gave what he could not keep. His gain was eternal. We all have things to give and a very wise and generous Christian neighbour of ours says quite frequently, "There are no pockets in a shroud," meaning, of course, that we cannot take our material possessions with us when we die.

The set of the unseen compass is so clearly defined in the words of Scripture, '... we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things that are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal'. (2 Cor. 4:18)

Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur in South India had her compass set on the unseen when she was still a young woman living in Ireland. She describes in her biography 'Gold Cord' (2) an incident that happened one wet day in Belfast. She and her family met a pathetic old woman carrying a bundle. Amy and her brothers felt led to help her with her bundle and for Amy, a young girl, in the sight of a lot of respectable well-dressed church-goers, it was a very embarrassing experience. Just as they were passing a drinking fountain at the side of the road, a scripture flashed into Amy's mind ...

'"Gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide ..."'

'We went on. I said nothing to anyone, but I knew that something had happened that had changed life's values. Nothing could ever matter again but the things that were eternal.' (2)

Later that day Amy shut herself in her room, talked to God and settled once and for all the pattern of her future life. Her compass had been set. What about us? Are the things that are eternal the things that matter most to us? Sometimes God has to work in our lives to change our values. God wants us to gain what we cannot lose by giving what we cannot keep, and to set our compasses on the invisible and the eternal.

We, as disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, want to be as He was in the days of His pilgrimage. His compass was resolutely fixed, first to set Him on course for the cross; 'therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed' (Is.50:7) and beyond that, He saw 'the joy that was set before Him' (Heb.12:2) when, having put shame and spitting behind Him, He would sit down at the right hand of the throne of God.

And as pilgrims, compass in hand, we too should be always 'looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith' and, come what may, keep our eyes fixed on Him.

1) 'Through Gates of Splendour' by Elisabeth Elliot. Hodder & Stoughton 1957

2) 'Gold Cord, the Story of a Fellowship' Chapter 1. Published by S.P.C.K. 1932

GRIERSON, G. | Jan 2003
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