Crabbing
“Crabbing” is a term used by pilots to describe the process of flying into a crosswind. Using the image above, imagine a pilot aiming for the runway. If he aims directly at the runway, he will end up at point B, because the crosswind will push him south. Therefore, he cannot aim at his target, but instead must aim above his target, towards point A. The pilot must aim higher than the target to reach his objective.
The Apostle Paul, in Chapter 6 of Romans, tells us that, as believers in Christ, we are no longer slaves to sin:
6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin… 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Yet, in Chapter 7, juxtaposed to this positive news, Paul appears to paint a very different picture:
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am!
Uh … what just happened? How can belief in Christ free us from the enslavement of sin (Romans 6), yet we still remain captive to sin (Romans 7)?
Viktor Frankl, an Austrian-born psychologist, survived three Nazi concentration camps. His young wife and parents died in those concentration camps. I invite you to watch this three-minute video, where he describes this concept of “crabbing,” and the analogy it holds for our lives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loay2imHq5E. Paraphrasing Frankl, he says, “If man aims at what he is, you make him worse. If man aims at what he should be (point A), he becomes what he can be.”
Christ was the Ideal Man. He is our target against the crosswinds of sin. He is our compass, our North Star, the direction in which we aim. We fly towards the Cross. By aiming towards where we should go, though sin will surely buffet us and, at times, even cause us to veer off course, we land at a better place.
As a father, husband, and member of Grace Church, I am reminded every day of what a wretched sinner I am. I am prideful and selfish (and could list many, many more flaws). However, as believers, we all have been delivered from the enslavement of sin in that at least we know where we should aim. We have been given a target; a compass to guide us. There is an Ideal Man, a Cross, towards which we fly. While we will never get there, we can land at a better place. And there is joy in the quest for the Cross. There is joy in the search for the Ideal Man. Yes, we are sinners, but we can imagine our noblest selves, emulating Christ, and in the quest to become that person, can be set free from the enslavement of sin.
In Christ,
Mort Taylor