A few years back as I completed the Direct Commission Officer Indoctrination Course in Newport, RI, I had the opportunity to tour the oldest ship still afloat: The USS Constitution. Old Ironsides, as she is also known, was launched in 1797. She is a wooden, three-masted heavy frigate – one of the six original frigates in the US Navy. I toured the ship and viewed the tight quarters, the rope systems that were used (blind) below deck to steer the ship, and the other features and compartments. As we made our way down to the gunpowder compartment, the sailor giving us our tour stopped us and told us we were about to touch one of the only remaining original – unrepaired pieces of the ship. We set foot on a piece of wood about two feet wide right outside the gunpowder compartment. It didn’t look like much…but it was the keel of the ship that we were standing on. It’s the part of the ship that is least visible but most important. It is the backbone of the ship. Without it none of the rest of the ship would be held together. A ship with holes in the hull might very well sink, but were it brought to the surface, it could be repaired and put back out to sea. A ship with a broken keel…you’d have to build a whole new ship.
I’ve thought a lot about that moment spent standing on the keel of that old ship. There was something profound about it; something I think that we can carry with us today. We are living in a time and space when a lot of things are trying to punch holes in our hulls. This virus has so many implications for how we live, and what life will look like going forward. It threatens our health and our lives as an infectious disease, but it also threatens our economy, our livelihood, and in many ways our very identity. It is one of those moments in time that we will always remember. Years later someone will ask us where we were when the Covid pandemic hit and we will all be able to say exactly where we were. More than that, we will be taken back and experience all of the feelings we are currently experiencing all over again. There is so much threatening our hulls, but some of those holes will be able to be repaired. But what about our keels? What is your backbone? What is the foundational structure upon which your entire being is built? Another way to ask that question is, what is your identity based upon? For so much of my life, I have identified myself by what I do: student, daughter, sister, chaplain, athletic trainer, pastor, sailor, athlete, etc. All of those things are part of my identity, but when I stop to think about the backbone of my identity, I’m forced to reckon with the fact that none of those things are really the backbone of my identity, and if they are, I’m in for a world of trouble…because all of those things by which I identify myself are transient things. They are temporary. If I were to make any one of those things my backbone and were it to be taken away, on what would I have to stand? The more I’ve thought about it, the more I have realized that my identity, my very livelihood, is my faith in God. If my Keel is the Creator of the universe – the one who ordered the stars and planets into orbit, who made all life and called it good – then I can live in these days with hope, even if my hull (body) is to be destroyed. That is the beauty of faith. When our faith forms the backbone of our identities, even when things get hard, even when we are afraid, even when we don’t know what is going to happen or how things are going to turn out, the one thing we can rest assured of is that God is God. God loves us more than we can imagine; God crafted each of us in God’s own image and claims us as God’s own beloved children. Now that is a foundation on which I can stand. Like the keel of Old Ironsides, it stands the test of time. So as we continue on this CoVID journey, may we remember the foundation on which we are built. May we call to mind the keel of our being and find comfort in the one who is love. God be with you, Rev. Amy Ruhf
1 Comment
Katie and Bill
6/18/2020 02:54:40 pm
Wow! Bill's immediate comment when I read this to him..."profound "....sure sense of your identity...inspirational because you have delved into yourself....it gives us pause to do the same. Sending love and thanks. K&B
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