Which Way Is Up?

In the movie, "The Poseidon Adventure", the ocean liner, S.S. Poseidon is on the open sea when a huge storm comes up.  Lights go out, smoke pours into rooms and amid all the confusion and problems the ship flips over.  Because air is trapped inside the ship it floats, but upside down.  In the confusion the passengers can't figure out what is really going on.  They scramble to get out, most following steps to the top deck.  The problem is, the  top deck is now the bottom deck  under 100 feet of water.  In trying to get to what they still perceived was the top of the ship, they drowned. The only survivors are the few who do what does not make sense.  They do the opposite of what everyone else is doing and climb up into the belly of the ship until they reach the hulk (the bottom), which is now at the top.  Rescuers hear them banging and cut a hole in the hulk and free them.

In life it's as if God turns the ship over and the only way for us to find freedom is to choose what does not make sense--the only way to get to the top is to go to the bottom.  The way to save your life is to lose it.  The way to receive strength is to acknowledge our weakness.  The way to receive is to give. There are things we encounter in life that we are really not equipped to handle ourselves.  That's why we need each other and we need God.

God brings other people into our lives to encourage and help us and He provides His Spirit to dwell in us to strengthen, guide and comfort us.  This is God's plan.  When life has you down so that you don't seem to know which way is up;  trust  God!  Psalm 20:7 declares, "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God."  It may not be chariots and horses in our day but if our trust is in God we can find our way up.  Our grief may not disappear but it will not drown us!