Paul's shipwreck and life's journey...

I was reading toward the end of Acts this morning when Paul was being taken as a prisoner to Rome and they set out to make the voyage.  I've read this many times before, but this metaphor of pushing off shore and braving the seas in order to reach your destination and destiny struck me differently, especially the language used to describe their journey.  It felt like life and even the journey toward salvation and beyond.

Here's how their voyage was described...

"We put out to sea."
"We put out to sea again..."
"The winds were against us."
"We made slow headway."
"We had difficulty arriving."
"Much time had been lost."
"It had become dangerous."
"It was disastrous and brought great loss."
"A wind of hurricane force swept down."
"The ship was caught by the storm."
"We gave way to it and were driven along."
"We passed roped under the ship itself to hold it together."
"We took a violent battering from the storm."
"We began to throw cargo overboard."
"We thew the ship's tackle overboard."
"The storm continued raging."
"We gave up all hope of being saved."

... (shift in text were Paul says they will be saved)

"Not one of you will be lost, but the ship will be destroyed."
"I have faith in God that it will happen just as He told me."
"Nevertheless, we must run aground."
"Cut the ropes to the lifeboats."
"Constant suspense."
"Throwing their grain in the sea."
"Cutting loose the anchors."
"Untied the ropes that held the rudders."
"They ran aground safely."

Life is quite a journey.  You can think you're setting out to experience one thing and, bam, you're in the middle of something you could never have expected in your wildest dreams.  Life is beautiful, but it is terrifying as well.  Life is filled with adventure, but not without suspense.

This text described a ship's voyage, but it seemed to describe the journey of one's life as well.  Everything from the feeling of things "being against you" to "difficulties" to "time lost" to "becoming dangerous, even disastrous" to experiencing "great loss" to being "swept down" to being "caught up" to eventually "giving way and being driven along" to "holding it together" to taking "a violent battering" to "throwing things overboard" to "giving up all hope of being saved"...this sounds like the travail of traversing this broken world.  I have looked in the eyes of these voyagers before, I have made this voyage myself.  The pain is excruciating.

But...

God comes and offers hope saying "you won't be lost though your ship will be destroyed", "have faith in me that what I say will happen just as I said".  We want salvation, but we don't want our ship to be destroyed...we love our ship, "nevertheless, we must run aground."  We have to give up control and "cut the ropes to our lifeboats" of safety as well as "cut loose the anchors" of our human security even  "untying the ropes that hold our rudders" so that only God steers our life.  Only then will be "run aground safely" as he destroys our ships and spares our lives, saves our souls.

I am aware that this is not talking about the path of people's lives...it is simply describing the voyage of Paul to Rome...but I think the descriptions are universally apropos for our stories.  And it's encouraging to know that as we let go, God takes over and does His thing.  It's amazing all that has to be destroyed in us and around us in order for us to be salvaged and saved, but alas, this is the arch of any great story, ancient or recent.

My prayer is for people to heed God's whispers and to let go of all that is lesser in order to find the Rope and Rudder of God's Spirit, the Lifeboat and Anchor of God's Word, and the Cargo and Sustenance of God's Salvation through Christ.  To lose everything and find Him.  This is life supernal and eternal.