Today’s IQ contains an excerpt from a much longer poem by Sir Francis Drake (copied below) that I find quite stirring, relevant and comforting – especially when I think about my current adventures.
Being an entrepreneur.
Being a photographer.
Being a father.
Being a husband.
Being a (fledgling) motivational speaker.
Being an artist.
Being a writer.
Being a film maker.
Planning a 12-18 month odyssey around Australia with my family, somehow making a movie and also earning money as we go, so we can share a message of Family, Love and Wellness with our world.
All of these things are fun and exciting on their own, and together.
But all of these things scare the CRAP out of me at different times. Sometimes the terror hits all at once, on the bad days.
Sometimes I feel like all I can do is rope myself to the tiller, and keep screaming my defiance at the storm, knowing with every fibre that I will make it, I will get through this, I will triumph.
I find enormous comfort in this passage: “Where storms will show your mastery;” … It brings me hope that I am on the right path, as I weather the turbulent seas of my adventures.
The visual I get is of the scene in “The Truman Show” when Jim Carrey’s character confronts the storm, and shouts “IS THAT THE BEST YOU CAN DO?”
So, my dear friends, remember this:
Storms will show your mastery. Just keep screaming your own defiance and stay your course. You’ll get there.
With love,
Israel. xo
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Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.