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ONE SHOVEL-FULL AT A TIME

I enjoy sailing around volcanoes, and whenever I have the opportunity, I climb them.  Just north of Sicily is an island called Volcano Island and (as you might guess) there is a large volcano in the middle of it.  It only takes a couple of hours to hike to the top and it’s an easy climb unless it’s raining.  Friends from another yacht were on the summit during a thunderstorm.  The combination of thunder, lightning, flash flooding, and slurries of mud rushing down the slopes made their climb into an unforgettable adventure.  They reached the base of the volcano after sinking up to their calves in thick red mud.

Fortunately my climb to the top was less arduous, but it was still an excellent adventure.  The magnificent view from the top made the climb worthwhile.  The active volcanic island of Stromboli could be seen in the distance as a faint outline emerging from the Mediterranean haze.  Unlike Stromboli, my volcano was dormant.  There was no molten lava in the caldera and no active lava flows to threaten adventurers on its slopes.  Just because there was no hot lava to singe my toes didn’t mean I could treat this volcano without respect.   Clouds of sulfurous gas and steam billowed from the summit, and even a small whiff of the noxious fumes quickly took my breath away.  More than once I had to hold my breath to pass through the toxic clouds of gas.

The highest volcano I've ever climbed is in New Zealand.  Even though it was summer, there was still ice and snow on its summit.  That volcano was so high I could see both coasts of New Zealand.  The Pacific Ocean stretched endlessly to east and the Tasman Sea glittered in the west.  I could literally see from sea to shining sea.

Each time I climb a volcano, I'm reminded how Jesus said if I have faith the size of a grain of mustard seed, I would be able to move mountains.  This statement confused me for many years.  I had so many mountains of adversity in my life, but none of them seemed to be moving.  I tried to muster my faith as best I could, but my mountains stayed right where they were.

There was a fatal flaw in my understanding of the nature of faith.  I was looking for magic.  I wanted to name it and claim it.  I secretly hoped faith would temporarily suspend the laws of the physical universe at my whim, enabling me to rearrange the real estate on planet earth – in other words, move mountains.  I had a poor understanding of why God put the capacity for faith in my heart and mind.  I totally missed the point.

Fortunately this story has a happy ending.  I discovered that faith has nothing at all to do with magic or altering the laws of the physical universe to make miraculous things happen.  Instead, faith has everything to do with vision – a vision of what is possible with the help of God.  God gave me faith to see things other people cannot see.  Faith lets me see through clouds of chaos and confusion.  It allows me to look into the future and see what is possible.

Now when I ask God to help me to move a mountain, I know exactly what’s going to happen.  He’s going to give me a shovel and tell me to start digging.  And before I know it, the mountain will start moving.

Jesus was right.  If I have faith the size of a grain of mustard seed, I can move mountains.  One shovel-full at a time.

Do you hear that sound?  That’s me and my shovel at work.  I am moving another mountain.  In about a week I am pulling up my anchor to sail three thousand miles across the Atlantic Ocean.  I know I can do it one shovel-full at a time.


 


Log 1 Peter Pan Around the World
Log 2 Weapons of Mackerel Destruction
Log 3 Pirates of the Malacca Straits
Log 4 Kissing Cobras
Log 5 Debriosaurus Rex
Log 6 Go Ahead - Live Your Dreams

Log 7 The Man Who Built His House on a Rock
Log 8 Ambivalent Eagles
Log 9 One-Shovel Full at a Time
Log 10 Hitchhiker's Guide to Planet Earth

Log 11 Keeshond

Log 12 The Red Sea Blues

Log 13 Feel the Freedom

Log 14 The Danger Zone

Log 15 Lucky Man
Log 16 Dream Machines - Land Rover Defenders

Log 17 Trade Wind Dreams
Log 18 Logs With Fins
Log 19 Everywhere, Everything
Log 20 Shark Slayer Is History

Log 21 Viking Funeral - Burial at Sea
Log 22 Improbable and Impossible

Log 23 Keep on Trucking
Log 24 Dream Machines II
Log 25 Bodysurfing Whales
Log 26 Hitting the Wall
Log 27 Surviving the Savage Seas

Log 28 The Next Step
Log 29 Welcome to Barbados
Log 30 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers
Log 31 The Man with the Unplan
Log 32 Dali Dolphins
Log 33 Flying Like a Turtle
Log 34 The Foolish Man Built His House on a Pitch Lake
Log 35 Go West Young Man
Log 36 Crossing the Atlantic in a Row Boat
Log 37 The Unsinkable HMS Diamond Rock
Log 38 Catamaran Capsize in 170 mph Winds
Log 39 When Are You Coming Home?

Log 40 Master and Commander of Anegada - Frigate Birds
Log 41 Baths of Virgin Gorda - Batholiths of Central Arabia

Log 42 Free at Last
Log 43 Stalking the Wild Manatee

Log 44 Spreaderman
Log 45 Attack of the Flesh Eating Bees
Log 46 Sharks and Coconuts
Log 47 Stingray Picnic
Log 48 Boo Boo Hill
Log 49 Whale Slayers
Log 50 Noddies (Not Naughty)

 

Log 51 Exumas Land and Sea Park
Log 52 David and Goliath
Log 53 Turquoise Clouds of Paradise

Log 54 Momma Nightjar
Log 55 Maximillian The Great
Log 56 Chiton Kingdom
Log 57 Flying and Holding On
Log 58 Far Horizons
Log 59 Clouds Are a Sailor's Friend
Log 60 Getting Connected
Log 61 Fear
Log 62 Grand Schemes and Other Important Things
Log 63 If Jellyfish Had a Brain
Log 64 Cousins That Don't Kiss
Log 65 Swimming With Sharks
Log 66 Perfect the Way You Are
Log 67 Space Travelers
Log 68 Aliens
Log 69 Monsters of the Mind
Log 70 My Butterfly Collection
Log 71 Somewhere Other Than Here Societies
Log 72 Five-Hundred Pound Spiders
Log 73 Red Sea Sunsets
Log 74 Gibraltar Sunrise
Log 75 Big Sea - Small Ship
Log 76 Just Cruising
Log 77 Castle Mania
Log 78 You Must Know the Sea
Log 79 Flying Like a Goat
Log 80 The Joy of Photography
Log 81 Universal Camouflage
Log 82 My Rainbow Collection
Log 83 Indian Ocean Reward
Log 84 Fiber W
Log 85 Turkish Reflections
Log 86 Mirrors and Mirages
Log 87 Lycean Tombs Rock
Log 88 Rigging Emergency
Log 89 Pamukkale
Log 90 Volcano Land
Log 91 Sniffing the Air
Log 92 Why I Don't Kite Surf
Log 93 Resurrecting Exit Only in Turkey
Log 94 Greased Pole Competition
Log 95 Tsunami Damage
Log 96 Afraid of Living
Log 97 Living on the Edge
Log 98 Borneo Adventure
Log 99 Uligamu Tree Tender with Full Benefits
Log 100 God's Fireworks Display

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