Shipwrecked

The Scene:

Phew! The crew of the sailing vessel are one by one dragging themselves onto the sandy beach. Tattered, bruised, beaten, haggard and barely alive they begin to catch their breath. They have made it. They survived. The ship is nowhere to be seen. They think it must have been dismantled by the furious storm that they attempted to "ride out" through the night. Fearing the worst they abandoned the ship, dove into the churning waves and blackness for any hope of survival. 

Slowly, they gather on the beach. Not a word is spoken. No supplies. No food. No water. A deserted island, somewhere. But, they survived. They are alive. 

Behind them they hear a faint rustling sound. They turn towards the sound coming from within the thick border of trees. The sound builds, widens and quickens its pace. Suddenly, breaking from behind the curtain of trees a streak of tigers emerge. They pause, survey the small group of men. Hungry, they move forward.

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I read a great post this morning from Mark Batterson, pastor & author: www.evotional.com.

He talks about the image of Paul encouraging the Centurion of the ship off of Malta to "cut the lines" and along with the crew stay on board for safety. Counter-intuitive, to say the least. Yet, how much do we really believe God when He says, "Trust Me."?  Hmmm.... Did the Israelites trust when they were on the shore of the Red Sea? Not! Did the disciples when they were in the torrential storm, and Jesus was counting sheep (or were they lambs?) in the back of the boat? Not! Did Thomas when Jesus revealed himself after the resurrection? Not! Did you the last time you ran out of time, money, health or hope? _______

The Centurion trusted Paul's belief in trusting God. It worked! Moses trusted God at the Red Sea. It worked! I trusted God when my life was left shattered, broken, and in shambles after crashing onto the rocks of my self-reliance, my trying to get things right and operating through pride. It worked! 

Shipwrecked

"The man with the clear head is the man who frees himself from fantasy and looks life in the face, realizes that everything in it is problematic, and feels himself lost.  And this is the simple truth - that to live is to feel oneself lost.  Whoever accepts this has already begun to find himself to be on firm ground.

Instinctively, as do the shipwrecked, he will look around for something to which to cling, and that tragic ruthless glance, absolutely sincere because it is a question of his salvation, will cause him to bring order into the chaos of his life. These are the only genuine ideas; the ideas of the shipwrecked.  All the rest is rhetoric, posturing, farce. He who does not really feel himself lost, is without remission; that is to say, he never finds himself, never comes up against his own reality." 

Jose Ortega

Cut it loose.

For emphasis -- (b)