At Play Upon a Sea of Peril
Recently, while vacationing with my family, I had the chance to do something I had never done before. I went parasailing. Being pulled behind a boat, on a thin rope, 400 feet in the air, as it turns out, is pretty exciting (and a fairly effective way to get your motion sickness really kicked into high gear). What was the most unexpected thrill, however, while floating beneath the gargantuan parachute, was the sight below. For a couple of days we had been swimming and playing in blue-green, albeit algae filled waters, and enjoying the sugar white beaches with little concern. That would all change with one joy ride over populated beaches full of families and sun seekers.
What changed our care-free vacation into something a bit different, as I mentioned, was the view from above the sunny playground. Up there, able to see the full picture, more than sun and fun opened up to us. As we were being bounced around by the wind and waves and watching unsuspecting children and families blissfully enjoying their vacations, we noticed something startling. Sharks. Lots and lots of sharks. Not just any sharks it turns out. They were Bull Sharks, which are known to be the most aggressive and most likely to attack a human. This little sight seeing tour, quite unexpectedly, turned into a sober awakening for us. For the remainder of the vacation we wrestled with how and when to play in the gulf. We became mindful of reality.
What struck me most while suspended in the air and watching how close the sharks were to the people was the lack of ability of the swimmers to see or even consider the danger that was merely a few feet away. They say, “Ignorance is bliss”, but in fact, as we began to see, ignorance of some things is pain waiting to happen. As we yelled down to some who were all too close to the danger, they just smiled, laughed, and waved at us. They thought, it appeared, we were joking about the flesh eating beasts just out of their eyesight.
What we learned, just after our parasailing expedition ended, as we went back to the room to get ready for dinner, and while watching Shark Week which ironically was running on television, is that Bull Sharks like shallow water (4-6 feet), and they like it murky (like the algae filled waters near the shoreline where we were). We also learned that splashing sends sound waves their way and attracts the sharks toward the activity. In a nutshell, what we witnessed was a pretty scary scenario, one that could not have been much worse really in terms of the perfect environment and situation suited for disaster. And no one had a clue!! Thousands of people were as content as can be playing upon a sea of peril. Some I’m sure were aware that just a couple of years ago several attacks took place right there. Out of sight out of mind, I guess.
It did not take long for the metaphor to sink in. As I pondered the tragic irony of the situation, I was struck how similar the situation is to life in the world on a spiritual basis. First off, one would think that people are hired to keep track of the dangers in the waters where thousands of people are playing. But no one said a word the entire week about the sharks in the water. It is not a stretch to assume that it just does not “pay” for this kind of dangerous information to get out. Taxed by the economic realities and the oil spill in the gulf, I’m sure the tourism industry in the area does not need word to get out about the number of sharks in the area right now. This is too true of life in the world. Too many have too much invested emotionally, relationally, and financially to warn us of life outside the boundaries of God. Keep watching the mind-numbing television every night, don’t read, don’t think, don’t process. Just join the crowd! And pay for our ads, movies, shows, and lifestyles as you do! So, they say. And we don’t even hear it. We’ll tell you what’s cool, sexy, fun, and meaningful! We’ll tell you how to blend in and get attention. We’ll tell you what to wear and how to wear it. Just be quiet and enjoy the ride. Don’t process the entertainment, just take it in! Its all just good fun, don’t worry. Don’t let the puritans in church tell you how to live, we got this! And so, rather than protect one another, we feed each other to the sharks.
Another spiritual reality which comes to mind is the correlation to how we pursue fun amidst danger in our world today. We live in a cultural sea which craves and encourages fun and ease, and worry free living. If it feels good, ignore the perilous possibilities! Everyday, for example, we are bombarded with thousands of images, literally, telling us that the way to life is found in the waters of sex, drink, night clubs, and freedom from moral constraint. Don’t worry! we are told. Everyone is having fun! Just don’t look down. I wonder how many of our own family and friends are living inches away from the devouring reality of sin lurking amidst the murky lifestyle they now find themselves in. Convinced of the safety in numbers, they lie wide open to the attack of the enemy at every turn. One more step and they may find life utterly different. Are we willing to scream from our view from above and warn them of dangers swarming around them? Whether they laugh at us or not, are we willing to try?
What we fail to realize, and what I was made aware of on our flight, is that we are so exceedingly close to ruin, and yet, so unaware of the truth. We go about splashing and lunging, and diving, in the culturally accepted seas of fun, and never pay any mind to the reality that God is screaming at us, “Danger! Turn back! Find shore!” We are told that sexual expression is a matter of taste, that two consenting adults can do anything they want, and that modesty and self-control are puritan ideas promoted by uptight losers. Its about us, our desires, not what God wants or offers. All the while, God, who has the highest and clearest of all views, cries out toward us to save of from dashing ourselves upon the rocks. He does all He can to remove us from the dangers which lie below, unnoticed by the crowd inebriated with fun. He sees the blood-letting which is drawing the demonically inspired feeding frenzy well under way.
What we must recognize is the truth behind Jesus’ statement, “I have come that you might have life and that to the full”. (Jn 10:10) He is indeed the living water for all those struggling in the waters of cultural acceptance and mind-numbing moral laziness. Just as all those distracted swimmers were blind to the dangers nearby, dangers able and willing to dismember them or worse, we find ourselves, too often, willfully unaware of the reality of God’s truth. Just as Adam and Eve ran from His truth, failed, and thereby brought themselves shame, we also, perpetuate the cycle. We pursue a deadly form of self worship, and we worship a deadly form of lifestyle, all the while hoping it will bring us the peace and rest and meaning we have always craved. It will never work. The cultural lifeguards have abandoned their call to keep watch, and they merely tell all us swimmers to join in the fun and ignore the danger. “Relax”, they tell us, “Lighten up”, its all no big deal. Nothing bad can happen here. But if we read the papers, we must recognize someone is lying.
If we, any of us, have any hope in finding a life worth living, we will have to come back to the scriptures and search the only charts which can properly direct our course. The warning flags are there and are there for our good, our protection, and our ultimate joy. Safety and true pleasure are actually found as we look toward the flags God raises for us. We must not view His warnings as mere prohibitions to all that is fun, rather, we must recognize that He who sees all and knows all, is the very source of our good. In pursuing Him we find life, peace, rest, a vacation for the soul.
Where has your life brought you? How have the choices turned out for you? Are you drowning? Have the shark bites taken their toll? Are you feeling dismembered? God alone is your hope, your way back toward a life worth living. Are the patterns, many of which initially promise a taste of fun, actually serving to imprison you? Is the adrenaline rush you seek in one relationship after another really working? Or is it that quest actually leaving your heart feeling feasted upon?
There is a way forward. There is a shoreline where all things are safe. Swim there as hard and as fast as you can.
Bruce Smith,
Optimuslife.org