I won't be going on a cruise anytime soon.
Not that I've ever wanted to. But this week's reports of passengers on a powerless, drifting cruise ship clinched it. Fire at sea...everything shut down - from lights to air conditioning to toilets...no communication...little bags as your "bathroom"...accounts of sewage running in the halls and down the walls...a repulsive stench...sleeping wherever.
I ain't goin'.
Well, they're back finally. And as they disembarked, the cameras were there, of course. I'd love nothing better than to appear on national TV, not having showered for five days. Some passengers told their stinky war stories - including more detail than I really needed to hear. But some actually inspired me with their stories of rising above their deplorable environment.
One young woman won her cruise in a contest at an NBA game. She kissed the ground when she stepped off the gangplank. And then, in her cruise ship white terrycloth robe, she bubbled, "There's a great God, and He is in control!"
She was one of a number of passengers who knew a way to find safe passage when your ship's adrift and your situation's miserable. "We went outside and had Bible studies," she explained.
Then she choked up as she quoted the Bible verse that had been her "life preserver" - "Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:9). Even when you don't know where you are. Even when you don't know where you're going. Even when the situation stinks.
A couple from San Antonio talked about the decisive difference a shipboard Bible study had made for them: "It was awesome. It lifted up our souls and gave us hope."
Suddenly I saw in that dream cruise turned nightmare a picture of so many lives. How many people's dreams for their marriage or their kids have become a nightmare? And so many have seen a sudden "fire" change everything - the bad news from the doctor...the accident...the discovery of betrayal...the attacks of those you trusted.
We're drifting, at the mercy of things we can't control. Our natural response: discouragement...self-pity...anger...withdrawal...depression.
Unless we know where to go to find the anchor when our ship is adrift. We run to God's unchanging Word. And let what He says decide our response.
Except so often we don't. We fixate on our problems, fume over the people who caused them, and frustrate over our impotence to fix them. And we get all grumpy, gripey, negative - and overwhelmed. Not only does the situation stink. So does our attitude.
There's another choice. We can plant both our feet, not in the swirling stuff in front of us, but on the solid footing of God's Word. And something happens. We are, as those Texas passengers said, "lifted up." We can suddenly see this "impossible" and "unbearable" situation from God's perspective - from above the mess instead of in the middle of it.
What God says is the Truth should illuminate my life when the lights have gone out. That reminds me that God's got something much bigger going on than what I can see. That this situation isn't going to decide what happens to me. My Savior is. "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and they are safe" (Proverbs 18:10).
Shame on me for succumbing to the stench and the stress. Jesus is my Captain. I'm never truly adrift.