Anchors Aweigh

The phrase "Anchors aweigh!", means, "Bring the anchors up", or "The anchors are free of the sea bottom and the ship is underway"(1).  It carries the idea that the anchors are no longer holding the ship in place and it can now sail.

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Anchor occurs twice in the NT.  In Acts 27 and Hebrews 6.  In Acts 27, the anchors were used to keep Paul's ship from being wrecked, in verses 29 and 30.  Then, in verse 40, they cut the anchors loose, when they were about to make a final run for the beach, and give up the ship:

After casting anchors, they left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and headed for the beach.
-Acts 27:40

In Hebrews 6:19, it says that we have the hope of Christ, as the anchor for our lives.  Christ keeps up during life's storms and anchors us, in himself, as we sail through life.

We have this hope as an anchor for our lives, safe and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. 
-Hebrews 6:19

"Anchors aweigh", which means to pull up your anchors and get underway, does not perfectly fit Acts 27 nor Hebrews 6.  But, what about Philippians 3, where Paul writes this:
But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
Therefore, all who are mature should think this way.
-Philippians 3:15b-15a
As we pull up our anchors and sail, we forget what is behind and reach forward, pursuing our goal of the heavenly prize in Christ.  This is how we think and therefore, function.  Paul says, in the next verses, that if you don't get it, then let God impart it to you.

If the Lord says, "Anchors aweigh", I think he is saying, "Be free", and "You're underway".  When Jesus says, "If the Son sets you free you are free indeed"(John 8:36), I think he means it.  He also says to the healed one, "Go and sin no more"(John 8:11).

He sets you free, but you must go and be free.  He heals you, but you must continue in your healing.  We have responsibility for our well being.

"Anchors aweigh", might mean it is time to begin sailing and you are in fact underway.  Leaving the port is exciting.  The simple truth is that when the anchors are down, you are stopped; but when the anchors come up, you get to go.

"Anchors aweigh" means that your time to go is here.  There is a time to stay, to anchor, to rest, to be hidden in the harbor, to make repairs, to take on supplies, to get your hull fixed, to get your sails mended, and to learn sailing in a class on land.  There is a time for all that, but then comes the time to sail out into the sea.

There is a time to move, to go out, to leave the harbor. When the anchors are pulled up, the ship is no longer anchored.  The boat enters a liminal space in-between "anchored" and "sailing".  Are you in that space?

There is God's initiative and our responsibility.  We've been filled and filled and filled, repaired, rested, rewired; taught it and caught it, seen it and dreamed it, heard it and spoken about it.  The anchors have been drawn up.  Now God is saying, "Your move ".
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1. Anchors Aweigh, wiki

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