Shivered Timbers

Have Your Timbers Ever Been Shivered?

Have life events ever shivered your timbers and left you feeling as if you’ve been broken into many small pieces and left adrift? Life has a way of doing that sometimes, doesn’t it?

Borrowing a phrase from that spinach-loving sailor, Popeye, life can shiver our timbers. Especially when our world shifts, disrupts our equilibrium, and leaves us to balance the teeter-totter without hitting the ground with a solid thud.

It might be the death of a loved one. The death of a dream.

Lost job. Lost health.

Damaged relationships. Damaged trust.

World upheaval. Spiritual upheaval.

Dividing walls. Dividing Hearts.

The life event that shivers our timbers doesn’t matter as much as the fact that it happened. And when we’re shivered, regardless of the cause, it hurts.

Can I get an Amen?

Shivered Defined

According to the etymology.com shiver me timbers means:

to break in or into many small pieces, c. 1200, from the source of shiver (n.). Chiefly in phrase shiver me timbers (1835)

To cause (a material thing) to ‘start’ or break away from its place; to displace by pressure or strain. Of a ship. To suffer the starting or giving way of (a plank, etc.).

The word shiver originally referred to a small piece, fragment, or splinter of something, or to the act of breaking something into many small pieces. Hence, “shiver my/me timbers” refers to the splintering of wooden ships upon rough seas.

Well Shiver Me Timbers

Purely on a lark, I watched the 1934 Popeye cartoon, “Shiver Me Timbers”.

That cartoon set me on the path of considering how life can shiver us from time to time.

In this cartoon Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Wimpy stumble across a ghost ship. After they climb aboard, various things proceed to scare them. Be forewarned. There be ghosts and skeletons galore to frighten them off the ship. Scary things try to force them to abandon their plans and turn back.

Are you seeing any similarities?

Right off, Popeye disappears. As Olive Oyl and Wimpy search for him, they run into trouble. Hamburgers disappear before Wimpy can get them into his mouth. Olive Oyl falls into a barrel of flour.

When it looks as if all is lost, the ship’s mast falls and breaks around Popeye’s feet. Literally, shivering his timbers.

But have no fear. Popeye knows where his courage and strength lie. He pulls out a can of spinach, tosses it into his mouth, and voila. Just like that. He is able to conquer all the scary things that surround him. He restores peace, and they sail on smooth seas once again.

When Our Timbers Are Shivered

Does that in any way describe how you feel at times on your life journey? I know it does me.

Our dreams might shatter and break into many small fragments. Everything we’ve worked so hard for lays destroyed at our feet.

Perhaps our shivered timbers break away from our moorings. We feel displaced by the pressures and strains of the demands and needs around us.

We might even feel as if the wooden ship we are on will surely be lost in the rough seas that threaten to dash us against the reef.

Maybe the stress of life caused our joy to disappear much like Popeye did once he stepped onto the ship.

Or possibly, like Wimpy, those things we desire, and were positive were within reach, vanished from sight.

Perhaps, as was the case with Olive Oyl, we’ve fallen into a barrel of flour that keeps our true identity and purpose hidden.

There is Hope When Our Timbers Are Shivered

Hold on. All is not lost. Don’t despair. There is hope.

When the mast of our ship falls around our feet and shivers our timbers, we need to do what Popeye did. Go to the source of our strength.

Popeye had his spinach to strengthen him. We have the Creator God who knit us together in our mother’s womb, the One who placed the stars in the heavens and the planets in motion, to strengthen us.

Although tides of life might pull us off course, pieces of dreams may shiver and lay splintered on the deck, our main mast splits in two from the noise and chaos of life, and our sails of hope tatter and tear, it is possible to steady our ship.

Your Turn

Here’s how.

When our timbers get shivered, it requires a deep trust in God to steady the ship.

It requires stepping away from the helm and allowing God to take over.

Steadying our ship also requires that we continuously realign our lives to the Guiding Star that is constant and never moves.

Is it easy? Not always.

Is it doable? Absolutely, with God’s help.

Or as in the case of that spinach-loving sailor, it requires pulling out that can of spinach, tossing it into our mouth, and declaring with assured confidence, “I’m strong to the finish, ’cause I eats me spinach. I’m (insert your name here) the Child of God.”

With God all things are possible.

Even putting the shivered pieces of our life in their proper place.

In what ways have your timbers been shivered lately?

Looking for another post on finding peace in the midst of chaos? How about this Inspire a Fire post by Terri Kelly?

I wish you well,

Sandy

Photos courtesy Pixabay.