Slooping Around the Horn

I am not sure whether slooping around the horn is a good thing or a bad thing.  The expression refers to sailing around Cape Horn, one of the most dangerous places in the world to sail.  Cape Horn is to sailors what Mount Everest is to climbers.  In the context in which I heard that expression, I think it meant the woman was losing her mind.  Could be.  Or maybe she felt her mind was in danger of being lost.  Or maybe she was relieved to know that the danger of losing it was past.  Since I seem to always be in one of those three states, that would be a great new name for my blog, don't you think?  If I ever do get a new blog I think I will call it that.  "Slooping Around the Horn".  Yes. That's it.

Now that that's settled, I can go on to say that by God's grace I did successfully sloop around  Cape Hospitality to anywhere from one to sixteen guests every day for the past eight days.    It was the week (plus) of our annual missions conference, with preaching every night.  On about day five or six, feeling mentally exhausted and zombie-like, I was pretty certain I was going to lose it.  I was so far gone that I actually considered letting go and being henceforth labeled "feeble-minded."  If I could claim even temporary insanity I wouldn't be accountable for anything I said or did.  But you know how it is -- if you know enough Bible it wrecks you for that kind of stuff.  A word from God providentially came to mind: For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. My last vestige of sanity clung desperately to this promise in 2 Timothy 1:7.  I repeated it to myself over and over. Little by little the parts of my brain that were ready to be swept overboard were convinced that truly, with God all things, are possible, even this. Even if one is not pre-disposed to a Martha Stewart personality!  Victory! 

You must understand that I love having company, especially when our visitors are godly people who are serving the Lord with their backs turned on the world.  I love for my girls to interact with other children who are being led down the heaven-ward road.  My losing my mind has nothing at all to do with having visitors, but with being unorganized and stressed out and being predisposed to a Martha-of-the-Bible personality.  All along I kept thinking, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee, knowing that my mind was not stayed on the Lord, but on how much food there would be, and whether or not it what I served would be impressive.  Ah, pride, my enemy. 

Long story short, it all turned out fine except for the five-star scalloped potato recipe that I lifted from allrecipes.com.  That was horrid. The food was 99.5% good, the preaching was great, the fellowship was dear, the kids were well-behaved, my husband was greatly encouraged, and my mind is intact. 

**satisfied sigh** 

Slooping around the horn.  I can confidently say that in this case the sloop is past the danger of  being lost at sea, is making a complete recovery, and is blessed to be moored in the haven of rest.

photo from sam low