Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
The Yacht Race That Sank
What keeps a racing yacht upright in the fiercest storms? It's not what you see above the waterline, but what lies hidden beneath. The tragic story of experienced sailor Michael Plant reveals how the unseen ballast attached to his yacht's keel made the difference between life and death when it unexpectedly detached during his 1992 Atlantic crossing.
Today, take five minutes for a heart check. Examine what you're cultivating beneath your personal waterline. Are you building the internal character that provides stability when challenges arise? When we commit to loving God and loving people from the inside out, we honour Him and bring genuine joy to ourselves and everyone around us. God loves you, He's with you, and I'll be here tomorrow with another five minutes to help you start your day right.
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mac. I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back, relax and let me help you start your day right. There is a unique yacht race that goes all the way around the world called the Vendee Globe. But not only do you have to go all the way around the world. There are some other requirements for this race. First of all, you have to do it solo, and that means you are the only one in the boat. Secondly, you are not allowed to go to land or to get any assistance at any time during this race. To go to land or to get any assistance at any time during this race. The last winner of this race completed it in 74 days and three hours, but it can often and usually does take much longer than that.
Speaker 1:Back in 1992, there was a man by the name of Michael Plant. He had already completed this race three times, but he had never won it. So he bought himself the most high-tech boat that he could find, filled it with the latest and best electronic equipment and set sail from New York to the coast of France. As he started out, the weather was fine. He left New York Harbor, his equipment and everything was working well, but a couple days out his support team lost radio contact with him and a freighter that happened to be in the area got a very weak signal from him saying that his electronics were causing a problem. That was the very last thing that anybody ever heard from him. Two days later, when his support team still had not been able to be in contact with him, they began searching for him and ships and planes went out to look for him. Finally, his yacht was found out in the Atlantic Ocean.
Speaker 1:It was upside down, which was very odd because of the design of these sailing yachts, these racing yachts. On the bottom of a racing yacht there's a large torpedo-shaped lead ballast that sits at the very bottom of that keel. This is what enables the boat to stay upright regardless of the weather, regardless of the waves and the storms. But now the boat was upside down and this lead ballast was missing. Apparently, something happened and that ballast fell off. They were never able to fully discover why whether it had been knocked off from striking something submerged like a whale or something like that, or whether the bolts that held it in place had just given out and it had fallen off. Whatever the case, as soon as that ballast left, the sailboat would have just flipped over and Michael Plant perished. It's interesting that one of the most important pieces of that high-tech racing sailboat was something that was rarely, if ever, seen this ballast that was at the end of the keel. If it's not there, the boat's not going to function right. In fact, when it was damaged and fell off, it was absolute disaster for Michael Plant.
Speaker 1:But it's not something that most people would ever see. Much is the same for us in our own lives. You see, what you don't see in a person is what always dictates what you do see. We commonly call this our character. Our character is our beliefs on the inside of us that will dictate how we are on the outside of us, what people will see about us, how we will act and interact with the people around us. Matthew 12, verse 35 is so good to help us understand this. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil things. It's what you don't see. It's what's inside of us that people don't see. That will dictate what we do and how we are and who we are. And, just like that ballast, if it's not the right thing, it's going to create problems for us in our lives. It's going to create disasters for us.
Speaker 1:We never experience effective change from the outside in. We always grow and change when it comes from the inside out, when it starts from the part that is not seen but is part of the root of who we are. When we grow inside of us, it is expressed outside of us and makes our performance outside all the better. We can learn to become more caring and gentle and loving. We can learn to be more patient. We can learn to act with wisdom and strength. We can learn to live without fear. But that doesn't happen from the outside in. It doesn't happen from what is seen by other people until it happens in the part of us that is unseen, deep down inside of us, in our hearts.
Speaker 1:We need to make sure what's going on inside of us, our motivations, our desires, our thoughts, all the things that are hidden. We need to make sure that those things are in line with God's Word and that they are submitted to who he is. That way we can become who we need to be and that way we can love God and we can love people and we can be who we designed to be and be the very best at what we can do. So today, gang, let's do a heart check. Let's look at how we are in the inside, what we are putting into us and what is coming out of us. Let's examine ourselves closely and know that when we live a life that loves God and loves people, we're bringing honor to him and we're bringing joy to us and to the people around us. Have a great day, my friends. Know that God loves you. He's with you. Talk to you tomorrow. Thank you for listening today and I invite you to join me Monday to Friday, right here on Starting Right with Danny Mac.
