Heading into Uncharted Waters
Each year in October we celebrate Columbus Day. We recall the hardships which the men faced as they journeyed into the unknown. Would they find their destination or would they be lost forever?
More than 1400 years earlier, a man named Paul was a prisoner of the Romans on a prison ship. They were making a journey through the Mediterranean Sea and were shipwrecked. He describes that experience in the 27th chapter of the Book of Acts in the Christian Bible. Here is a small excerpt from that chapter. You can find the full story in the Bible.
Just before daybreak, Paul urged all of them to take some food, saying, "Today is the fourteenth day that you have been in suspense and remaining without food, having eaten nothing. Therefore I urge you to take some food, for it will help you survive; for none of you will lose a hair from your heads." After he had said this, he took bread; and giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat. Then all of them were encouraged and took food for themselves. (We were in all two hundred seventy-six persons in the ship.) After they had satisfied their hunger, they lightened the ship by throwing the wheat into the sea.
In the morning they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach, on which they planned to run the ship ashore, if they could. So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea. At the same time they loosened the ropes that tied the steering-oars; then hoisting the foresail to the wind, they made for the beach. But striking a reef, they ran the ship aground; the bow stuck and remained immovable, but the stern was being broken up by the force of the waves. The soldiers' plan was to kill the prisoners, so that none might swim away and escape; but the centurion, wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land, and the rest to follow, some on planks and others on pieces of the ship. And so it was that all were brought safely to land. - Acts 27:33-44
During the twentieth century, a new trip was made into the unknown. On July 20, 1969, a mere twelve years after the first Sputnik was launched, Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon and returned safely to earth.
Now, in the twenty-first century, the entire planet is moving into uncharted territory. Globalization, economic collapse, global warming and political unrest are shaking the very foundations of our civilization. Like Paul, Columbus, and Neil Armstrong we face an uncertain journey. Will it end in destruction, or will we land safely on the other side?
Copyright © Jay D Weaver - July 30, 2009
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