Shipwrecked
There was a period of my life when I wasn’t at all walking with the Lord. For age nineteen to age twenty-five I wanted nothing to do with God and certainly nothing to do with the church. The reasons were somewhat complicated (aren’t they always?) but they really aren’t important to this passage. What is germane is the fact that my life was “thisclose” to total shipwreck so many times. In fact, it was only a matter of time until it was inevitable.
In looking back I’m not so sure that I didn’t in fact shipwreck. Having served as a pastor for the past twenty-nine years I have seem a lot of shipwrecked lives. Some of them I have seen on the way to shipwreck...
(I simply have to take a bunny trail here and say that one of the worst things that can happen to the spiritual life of a family is for one of the children to make a sports “traveling team.” It not only pulls them away from their church home for months at a time, it also places a great amount of stress on the family. Few families ever make it back into fellowship and an alarming number of marriages fail to survive the ordeal. I guess it’s supposed to be some kind of honor or something.)
...others I have seen coming in from shipwreck. And that’s the beauty. Shipwreck isn’t beautiful, not at all. But if we listen to God (in this case through the apostle Paul) and are finally willing to cut the anchors we are depending on and raise the sail allowing the wind of the Spirit to take us where He wills, then, “In this way everyone reached land in safety.”
Sometimes a shipwreck is the best thing that can happen to us, but only when we allow God to bring us to harbor. We may get a little wet and have to swim a bit, but we will reach shore and when we get there we will find safety.
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