What Keeps a Life From Capsizing?

The Helm

Has life rocked you?

I don’t know about you, but my life has thrown me some real doozies.

To be honest, more than a few of those in doozies have been my own fault, but the majority of the heaviest rocks and rolls I’ve experienced have been unexpected. The waves came out of nowhere to blindside me.

I wish I could say I’ve handled all of those waves well.

In my worst moments, I’ve collapsed inwardly and sucked others into the vortex of my own misery. In my most grace-filled moments, I’ve looked back into the storm, only in hindsight, to see that I didn’t capsize.

As we look backward into the past and onward to the horizon, there is no shortage of things that can destabilize us in the present.

We need ballast to keep us upright.

Clash of Tides

What is ballast?

It’s not a word we use every day. One of the definitions Merriam-Webster provides for ballast it is a heavy substance (such as rocks or water) placed in such a way as to improve stability and control,

As self-control is a prize virtue and fruit of God’s work in our lives, the X is on the map for us to follow as we pursue one of the greatest treasures of this life.

In fact, without self-control, we are in serious danger.

There are pirates and scoundrels and ruffians who would love to loot your life for their pillage. There is a real spiritual realm that is at war, and the dark side would love to consume you as fire consumes a burning vessel. Without ballast, without self-control, we aid them in their destruction. The wisest man in all of history, King Solomon, penned a proverb on this.

Even in times where I was in the right, the way I’ve handled it left me like a city without walls. That’s not even taking into account the times I’ve given into temptation to follow my eyes or follow my heart of follow my covetousness. The Lord may give grace, but He does not always spare consequences. Some lessons we have to learn the hard way. My head can be thick and my quickness to getting the point can be achingly slow.

As I said, some of this is our own fault, sometimes we get tunnel vision to pursue white whales with unholy abandon, but sometimes the waves of a perfect storm in life crash over us. Those waves could be sickness, conflict, job loss, sabotage, theft, infidelity, strife, war, economy, persecution, rivalries, elemental acts of God, and a host of other ship rocking turmoils.

Do you find it strange I included an act of God in the list of ship rockers? I do so because I cannot always see the hand of God or His purposes. I’m not the first one to sit in the dustheap and ashes to wonder what good can come of catastrophe. It goes back to the most terrible and most glorious moment in all of history. It’s in this juxtaposition of events, this crux of history, we find the ballast that will keep us steady, self-controlled, and hopeful.

In a mystery of how it can be wholly true at once, God came down to be with us. The name Immanuel, which we hear more frequently around Christmastime, means God with us. He didn’t throw lighting bolts from on high. He humbled Himself, and came down from on high, to enter the burning wreckage of our lives. There are eye witness accounts and an unfathomable number of prophecies fulfilled of Him living a perfect life, overcoming the temptations and conquering the tests those types and shadows who paved the way before Him failed at. He came to seek and save the lost, and He also came to turn a man against his household (Matthew 10:35-38). He overturned the moneychangers who made His Father’s house into a market (Matthew 21), did not cast a stone at the woman caught in adultery yet still told her to go and sin no more (John 8), was betrayed by one in his closest circle for 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26) to be handed over to a kangaroo court of men whose hearts He called whitewashed tombs (Matthew 23). And they crucified Him. The first person to get it was a Roman centurion who stood by and watched it happen, if he didn’t participate himself (Mark 15). After being buried for three days, in an act that is described by the apostle Peter in that death was not able to hold Him (Acts 2:24), Jesus rose from the grave to life again (Luke 24). He then ascended (Acts 1) to rule and reign from the right hand of God the Father (Hebrews 10).

Why does all this matter?

Because the wages of sin is death (Romans 6), Jesus Christ paid those wages on the cross, the sting of death was removed when He could not be held by it, and on the cross He has paid for the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53). While we were still sinners, ruffians and scoundrels and perhaps even pirates ourselves, God sent His son into the world to pay the debt for our sins (Romans 5).

Which means the accuser can no longer come to collect.

In Christ, we have been forgiven. In Christ, our guilt is removed. In Christ, our record of wrongs is wiped away. In Christ, our filthy rags have been replaced with white robes. In Christ, we have been made clean. In Christ, every promise God has made is now one we can lay claim to because we share the inheritance of His Son. In Christ, we have all we need. In Christ, we are no longer enemies of God because in His infinite wisdom, He has made His enemies His friends. In Christ, we have been given mercy to not get what we deserve, and we have been given grace to receive what we did not earn. This is the scandal of the good news.

In Christ, we are made whole, which means we do not need anyone or anything else to make us whole. If this truth is deep down in our hearts, providing weight to our souls, guidance to our desires, and light to our path, we may be rocked, we may be shipwrecked as the apostle Paul was, but will not be lost to the depths of the sea or be pulled under by any wave. Self-inflicted or not.

With the ballast of the gospel, may we be able to join in with Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, “I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages.”

The Armory

This means when your wife is not responding to your attempts at leadership, your romantic pursuits, or your initiatives and goals, whether you be faithful or feeble, Christ is your ballast.

When your husband is not leading or is being passive or overcompensating because he’s dealing with his own insecurities in different ways than you are, Christ is your ballast.

When your kids scream that you they hate you when you’ve finally given them a boundary, and then when they get older run off with a narcissist who turns them against you, Christ is your ballast.

When your body rebels against you by failure and sickness and chronic pain and “new normals” that leave you unable to remember what feeling good or healthy is like, Christ is your ballast.

When your finances are coming up short, whether because of daily needs or your own poor stewardship, or because even pulling up your bank account to make the attempt at creating a plan brings waves of guilt over your failures, Christ is your ballast.

When you’ve sinned yet again, in the way you said you wouldn’t, and your promise to be different is broken, your unfaithfulness is being used in accusation against you and thereby causing your faith to waver, Christ is your ballast.

When you’ve been manipulated, goaded, laughed at, scorned, told you would never measure up, rejected, misunderstood, harassed, abandoned, or despised, or when you’ve been betrayed and upon your reflections you look in the mirror to see that you’ve also been a betrayer, Christ is your ballast.

When the overwhelm comes and you just can’t see a way forward anymore, on the days where you can’t bring yourself to get out of bed or stop snapping at the family you love, Christ is your ballast.

When the anxiety you hate twists and tenses you up into a shaking bombast that’s within a hair’s breadth of explosion around the people you love and should feel relaxed with, Christ is your ballast.

When despair has eaten away what feels like the last drop of hope you’ve got and your impulses are telling you life is no longer worth living, or that the world would be better off without you, Christ is your ballast.

When you’ve gone scorched earth on a relationship and then come back to apologize but it’s just not the way it was before the bombardment, Christ is your ballast.

When your boss or co-workers lie to your face and gossip behind your back, or secretly start keeping files on every one of your failures in their Google Drive so they can drive the bus over you at the first opportune time, Christ is your ballast.

When that other co-worker stops by your desk every morning, laughs a little louder, smiles a little brighter, lights up when you get to your office, and understands you the way you wish your spouse would, Christ is your ballast.

When you’ve said yes to everything your work or your education or your hobbies asks of you, and you’ve succeeded, and you’re standing at the top of your heaps of wins only to look down and see that your family has no idea who you are and you don’t know them, Christ is your ballast.

When there are wars and rumors of wars and the news is squawking ever louder about what bombs are dropping or whose power is rising or falling, Christ is your ballast.

When the life you thought was worth building has been leveled and now you’re sitting in the rubble wondering what to do next but you barely have the strength to lift your head or get out of bed, Christ is your ballast.

When there’s unrest, uprising, revolt, capture, imprisonment, the death of your family by murder or drowning at sea, and your only company is the fleas, Christ is your ballast.

How?

Psalm 145 is where I find a heavy concentration of this ballast. Verse 15 says the Lord gives us our food in due season. Maybe I’m reading something into this in a “what this verse means to me” kind of way, but the remaining verses of the chapter seem to explain how the Lord is our provision and satisfaction.

The Lord satisfies us with His righteousness and kindness. He is near, He is what fulfills desire, He hears us, saves us, preserves us, and will take vengeance in a more perfect way than we ever could.

We can let it fall all into the Lord’s hands because He cares for us. In Christ, these promises are ours. He has made His enemy His friend, and brought us near. Our guilt and sins have been washed away. Our greatest problem has been solved. We may shipwreck. We may lose relationships we care about. We may even die, but ballast comes to those who fear Him who can destroy the soul more than those who can kill the body (Matthew 10). Jesus Christ is the rock of all ages that we can hide in, where our fear is transformed from terror to awe. Firmly holding onto Christ and His righteousness for ours, we can let go of guilt and fear and any accusation that comes our way, because it is Christ who keeps us stable and upright.

If you prefer to listen to it, Dustin Kensrue, lead singer of Thrice, put Psalm 145 to music.

Dropping Anchor

I do not want to lead you astray to think I have never lost hold of Christ as my ballast. However, like Jeremy Camp sang, “the only thing worth holding onto is holding onto me.”

I may not be who I want to be, but by the grace of God I am not who I once was. A lot has happened during the 21 years on the long road to Zion for me.

Whether I’ve realized it, laid hold of it, or had the strength of faith to walk on water myself, Christ has been my ballast because He is holding me with far more strength than I’ve held onto Him.

For those who are trusting in the cleansing blood of Jesus on the cross, He is your ballast. If you are not there, friend, as the apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:2, today is the day of salvation. Reply to this email and I’d be honored to walk through it together.

That’s the heavy anchor to drop that keeps us from rocking and rolling with the waves.

Stay Anchored and keep fighting the good fight,

~ J.P. Simons ⚓️

Below Deck: A Deep Dive

I could not think of a more fitting Deep Dive for this article than the story of Horatio Spafford, the writer behind the hymn It Is Well With My Soul.

If you want to listen to the hymn, you can click here to hear Jimmy Needham playing and singing it.

To streamline the history of this hymn and walk through it in a way that ties in with this issue, I asked ChatGPT to provide a history of Horatio Spafford, the hymn, and a devotional that connects it to this post.

As always, any generative AI text in Fightin’ Poseidon is in green text.

What Horatio Spafford Lost — and Why the Hymn Is Deep Gospel Ballast

Horatio G. Spafford (1828–1888) was a successful lawyer and Christian leader in Chicago. His life was marked by profound blessing — then devastating loss.

The Storms Spafford Endured

1. The Great Chicago Fire (1871)
   Spafford lost much of his financial investments when the fire consumed large parts of the city.

2. Death of His Children (1873)
   Spafford planned a family trip to Europe. He sent his wife and children ahead while he stayed behind to finish business.

   • The ship carrying his family collided with another vessel and sank rapidly.

   • All four of his daughters died (Anna, Maggie, Bessie, and Tanetta).

   • Mrs. Spafford survived and sent Horatio a telegram: “Saved alone.”

3. In immense grief, Spafford immediately sailed to meet her, and while crossing the very waters where his children died, he was inspired to write this hymn.

How Christ Was His Ballast

Spafford’s testimony — embedded in every line of the hymn — is not a platitude but a gospel confession under trial:

• “When peace like a river… When sorrows like sea billows roll…”
  He acknowledges that life can be terribly stormy.

• “Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say…”
  He has learned by experience to rest not in his circumstances but in God’s character.

• “Though Satan should buffet…”
  He recognizes real spiritual opposition, not naïve optimism.

• “That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate…”
  This is foundational gospel truth:

  • We are helpless apart from Christ

  • Christ did not overlook that helplessness

  • Instead, He took it upon Himself

• “My sin… Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more…”
  This is gospel ballast at its core:
  When Christ absorbs our sin on His body on the cross, our guilt is gone.
  That is what keeps a human soul steady when the world collapses.

• “And Lord, haste the day… The Lord shall descend…”
  His hope points to Christ’s return, when all suffering and shipwreck will be finally healed.

A Verse-by-Verse Gospel Devotional: Making Christ Your Ballast

This hymn is not merely poetry—it is a confession of faith forged in the storm. Each verse teaches us where ballast truly comes from and how the gospel steadies a soul that would otherwise capsize.

Verse 1: Stability That Is Learned, Not Assumed

“When peace like a river attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll…”

This verse does not deny the storm. It names it.

Peace and sorrow coexist here—not because life is easy, but because peace is not anchored to circumstances.

Notice the phrase: “Thou hast taught me to say…”

Peace is learned. It is formed through suffering and instruction. God teaches His people to speak truth over their lives even when their emotions lag behind reality.

Devotional takeaway: Christ becomes ballast when we let Him teach us how to interpret our circumstances instead of letting circumstances interpret Christ.

Verse 2: Assurance in the Middle of Spiritual Battle

“Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come…”

This is not metaphorical language. It is spiritual realism. The Christian life includes accusation, temptation, and affliction.

But the ballast is not our resistance—it is Christ’s regard:

“That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate…”

The gospel begins with helplessness. Christ does not save the capable; He saves the needy.

Devotional takeaway: When accusation comes, your stability rests not in your strength but in Christ’s attention. He saw you in your helpless estate—and He did not turn away.

Verse 3: The Weight That Keeps the Soul Upright

“My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part but the whole…”

This is the heaviest ballast of all.

Not partial forgiveness. Not probationary grace.

Not “forgiven if you do better next time.”

Your sin—the whole of it—nailed to the cross.

“And I bear it no more.”

This is substitution. This is justification. This is why the accuser has no claim left to collect.

Devotional takeaway: You will never be stable until the weight of your guilt is transferred from your shoulders to Christ’s cross.

Verse 4: Hope That Looks Beyond the Storm

“And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight…”

This verse lifts our eyes beyond endurance toward restoration. The gospel does not merely help us survive—it promises a future where faith gives way to sight and sorrow is swallowed up in glory.

Christ will return. The clouds will roll back.

Justice will be complete. Rest will be final.

Devotional takeaway: Ballast does not mean the storm ends now—it means the storm does not get the final word.

A Call to Trust Christ as Your Ballast

If you are reading this and realize that you have been trying to steady your life with effort, morality, control, or denial—hear this clearly:

You were never meant to be your own ballast.

The gospel is not advice. It is news:

• Christ lived the righteous life you could not live

• Christ died the death your sin deserved

• Christ rose again, removing guilt and death forever

• Christ now offers forgiveness, peace, and stability to all who trust Him

Scripture says: “Today is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2)

If you have never trusted Christ for salvation—or if you have been trusting around Him rather than in Him—you can come to Him now.

You do not need to clean yourself up.

You do not need to promise improvement.

You need to trust.

A simple prayer of trust might sound like this:

“Lord Jesus, I cannot steady my own life. I confess my sin and my helplessness. I believe You died for me and rose again. Be my Savior, my righteousness, and my ballast. I place my trust in You alone. Amen.”

If you prayed that, or if you are wrestling with these truths and want to talk them through, reply to this email.

Christ is the weight that keeps us upright.

Not because the waves stop—but because He does not fail.

(Devotional summary prepared with the assistance of ChatGPT)