Blindsided

My son is a Titanic fanatic. He has a model of the ship, has read books, and drawn numerous pictures. I suppose the most fascinating aspect of the Titanic story for him is the fact that it was blindsided by the unthinkable. It sunk! They said something like that could never happen. How could it be so?

During these past few months I too have been blindsided by the unthinkable. My former pastor, the one who baptized me and conducted my firstborn’s baby dedication was found to be in an adulterous affair. I thought something like that could not happen. How could it be so? The waves of his sinking ship are still lapping up over my thought life.

I considered David, a man after God’s own heart. After David became king of Israel, conquered Jerusalem and subdued enemies, God Almighty had promised to make his name one of the greatest of the earth. From David would come the Promised One. Yet, we all know that he succumbed to his own lusts and committed adultery with Bathsheba. Something like that is not supposed to happen…how could it be so?

Obviously, when a ship sinks, it takes down everyone on board. The consequences are far reaching. Decades and centuries later, inquiring minds want to understand the reasons of such a tragedy.

But something like that could never happen to me,” you might say. George Barna, in his 2004 report found that born-again Christians are just as likely to divorce as non-Christians.

We are taught in 1 Corinthians—so if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall. Furthermore, we learn that these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us (1 Corinthians 10:11).

Watch for those formidable dangers which threaten your ship and the loved ones on board. Navigate by God’s word through the treacherous waters.

Perhaps you yourself have already been on a sinking ship. God, in His awesome power, is able to resurrect sunken ships from even the murkiest sea if only the captain will cry out…

Psalm 51

1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.

4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.

5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts;
you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

God alone can clean the rust from the steel and empty the sand from every part. Moreover, keep your eyes on Jesus and you will not sink as Peter did, as David, and as so many others have before. You will tread upon the water…unsinkable.