Halyards and Hospitality

The Helm

Not long ago, I saw a post on social media about how email was the last quiet place on the Internet.

The noise, the rush to keep up, the fight to understand the algorithms, the click bait distractions engineered to keep us hooked on a site just a few moments longer to increase the dwell time, it’s all after us.

Do you feel the howl of this wind and gale? The endless barrage of voices spouting their opinions, opinions based on outrage, and outrage that may not even be real because negative news drives clicks is all battering me down like a starved kraken.

Before we can navigate this brackish hellscape, I want to invite you to sit down in my cabin for an moment and share the insider heart of the charted course.

Welcome to Fightin’ Poseidon, where we face God, the devil, and ourselves from the edge of the storm.

Clash of Tides

Do you feel the hunger this world has for chaos? We want to stay away from the shore so far inland that the storms cannot shake us as we sip warm and cozy drinks from the safety of our hobbit holes. Life will abide no such thing, and so we are called to the adventure. The clash of tides comes home to our hearts, the floods come, and we must take to the water. This isn’t a choice we always make for ourselves. In many cases, we’re thrown into the deep end and have to learn to swim. I’m not begrudging that. It just is what it is. We cannot hide from the storms of life.

So many friends and family and neighbors and co-workers of mine are being tossed about like a top-heavy wooden canoe on the North Sea. Waves from their bodies rebelling against them, the oasis of their marriage drying up, their transportation decaying and taking on water, their careers taking them into uncharted waters, the light in their spiritual eyes fading into darkness, a loss of direction leaving them bewildered without a clear path forward, relationship disappointment rocked between manipulation and betrayal, and that hard winter look in the mirror where the beholder does not recognize who is looking back at them. Such things shake a man or woman to their core. Some of these trials and tribulations are self-inflicted and some of them are abyssal spiritual undercurrents of a world gone mad or dark elders wanting to swallow a soul. In such waters, it’s easy to lose your bearings. I’ve lost them myself a time or two. No, really it’s more times than I can count.

I’ll be honest: I’m no storm-taming prophet nor the son of a prophet. I’ve wrestled and wandered and doubted. In those paths I’m prone to, I’ve learned that the darkness isn’t only “out there.” While those dangers certainly do exist, there is also a fight that wages in our hearts - distraction, impatience, pride, lust, fear, and apathy, to name a few. Some of those dangers we can hate, and some of those dangers - at least for a time - we can clutch like the ocean’s most valuable pearl.

Aboard the weathered rails of Fightin’ Poseidon, we don’t have to pretend we have it all figured out. We can leave that to the One who commands the wind and the waves to take us into unknown glories as we’re learning what trust looks like even as those waves crash over the bulwarks into our ships. “Lord, don’t you care that we’re about to die?!” Even those in the boat with Him asked that, and how little was their faith. It may be tempting to throw our hands up into the air and say, “Jesus, take the helm!” but unless He whisks us away in a flaming chariot of fire, we’re still getting drenched and seasick.

The Armory

In this moment, be still, take a breath, and let your mind rest on the One who is sovereign over the wind and the waves.

I need to rest my mind on this as much as I’m leading you to do the same.

Sunbreak Stories

I don’t want to have pressure for a Sunbreak Story every issue; however, if you have a story where the sun (or Son) broke through your darkness, please hit reply and share it for the encouragement of others. It doesn’t have to be a story of your strength. It can be a story where you barely had the strength to hang on and the grace of God was all that kept you tethered and prevented you from being thrown overboard to drown in the all consuming madness of your situation. I’ll edit names out.

Dropping Anchor

If I ventured too deep into the metaphorical with you, welcome. In the journeys of the last year, I’ve discovered I consider the course in front of me in a vivid conceptual way. Sharing it with you is one-half of being known.

There’s a lot of voices out there. Leaders. Influencers. Commenters. A cacophony of shouts from the shore. I’m trying to take the quiet approach.

This space is for slowing down, a chance for all of us to remember who is really at the helm. I’m intentionally charting us into uncharted waters that the currents of the online world will not take us to, all under the flag of hospitality. I want to invite you into something slower, something different, something conceptual, something intimate that isn’t propelled by the algorithms, outrage, or a news cycle that lasts half a day. We’re building something that world cannot manufacture - a quiet, steady crew, learning to love God and love our neighbor by carrying one another’s burdens in the Spirit’s strength. A chance to get face to face with God, the devil, and ourselves. The ability to lay down our fakery and shed light on our white washed tombs that don’t look so shiny when the sun hits them.

For that reason, I’ve gated the content at Fightin’ Poseidon to those who have joined the crew by signing up for the free newsletter. All are welcome aboard the crew, whether you have the strength - or even the faith - to hoist a halyard or not. However, I’m not taking stowaways. No lurkers. No staying hidden. No looking into the windows. I’m asking you into something greater. Sit at the table with us. And if you know someone who would find value in that? Invite them into the crew, too. There’s room for all of us on board.

This will probably kill the growth of the newsletter, but you know what? Not all things are measured in numbers.

We’re sailing into the headwinds of a different course.

This is the invitation into something blown by the winds we cannot see or understand, yet must hold fast in the midst of. It’s an attempt to live honestly, transparently, even if in a haggard capacity.

Thanks for sitting down with me.

Stay Anchored and keep fighting the good fight,

~ J.P. Simons ⚓️

Below Deck: A Deep Dive

If you’ve asked me how school’s going, you’ve probably heard me complain about algebra. Seriously. While I’ve tread water some days, felt like I was going to drown on others, and even had a couple breakthroughs in understanding, math has boggled my mind.

However, the order of mathematics is unreasonably reasonable.

This week, I pulled up this video of Eric Metaxas and John Lennox having a conversation about mathematics on Socrates in the City, and it was so good I wanted to share it with my crew for this week’s deep dive.