01/15/2022
In Acts 27 Paul is a prisoner on a ship being sent basically to whoever will take him and figure out what to do with him. His life is an absolute mess in terms of the temporal-stability, support, direction, comfort etc., yet he is rock solid in his faith despite no good evidence or clarity. The people around him consist of fellow prisoners with no hope, to business men transporting their commodities with high hopes, to a crew somewhere in between. Pushing their luck against the known unfavorable seasonal weather patterns and Paul’s strong caution, they continue to move from port to port up the coast, in an effort to make their destination with the financial payoff waiting. They run headlong into a brutal and relentless Nor’easter and the entire crew becomes exhausted and demoralized, fighting this storm, fasting 2 full weeks out of necessity, utter despair + stress and partly perhaps, to appease the gods of the sea and stars. Oh human works! In a sad, progressive series of soul-searching, sacrificial concessions, to lighten the ship, leadership throws over and off the ship, all the cargo, then later all the ship’s furniture and equipment and then all their grain, then even the anchors and the lifeboat and finally the mechanisms supporting the rudder. Prosperity, basic provisional necessities and comfort, security, stability and direction...gone. Through it all, Paul remained brazenly confident where everyone else “...finally gave up all hope of ever being saved” (v. 20). You may be at some point in this “cutting your losses concessions” mode in one or more areas of your life-maybe its your marriage, business, career, health etc. You are beyond exhausted and demoralized. You are realizing your hope and confidences was not in God but something else relating to your plans, and things partly within...and partly not within your control. It is a terrible place to be emotionally. The reality (I did not say sad reality) is that Life’s plan’s and ambitions DO disappoint...but within this massive storm, there doesn’t have to be a storm of disappointment. Go about your business. Seek prosperity and comfort and all that but do it secondarily and check hard and honestly in your heart that if your plans do fail in a storm, will you also go down with the ship? You don’t have to. Be wise and be warned by this anything but arbitrary story God chose to include in His Word. BTW, it turned out well.
