Rays of Light

Is there any greater tragedy than the loss of human life, especially if that loss could have been prevented? Let’s revisit history for a moment.

The magnificent, “unsinkable” Titanic, the world’s largest passenger steamship of its time, quickly sank into the icy waters of the Atlantic on April 15th, 1912 after its encounter with an iceberg. More than fifteen-hundred lives were lost including those of innocent children. The scars of this devastation were only deepened when it was made known that so many of those lives could have been spared.

Several mistakes had been made, all of which contributed to the profusion of death and destruction –any one of which could have been easily corrected. For example, there weren’t enough lifeboats to accommodate all the people on board, and those lifeboats that were employed were not filled to capacity. There has been a lot written about those various mistakes and what could have –should have– been done differently, but I would prefer to focus for a moment on the heroes instead.

We may not be familiar with their names, but there were many people aboard Titanic that gave their lives in order that others might be saved. The men in the engine room, for example, never abandoned their posts; they worked feverishly to keep the ship afloat as long as possible and keep the lights on so others could find their way to safety.

That is a rather good picture of the church. We’ve seen the news. Our world is being ravaged by turmoil, famine, pestilence and war. These devastations are sweeping over every continent like a tsunami, and people are beginning to drown in the despair of it all. It is our duty, therefore, to keep working till Jesus returns (Luke 19:13) and to keep the gospel light burning in order to give direction to those who are perishing.

According to survivor reports, there was a minister aboard the Titanic who gave his life doing exactly that. After placing his daughter in a lifeboat and saying his final goodbye, Reverend John Harper returned to deck helping “Women, children and unsaved into the lifeboats!”

Even in his final moments of life, he continued to do God’s work. Once in the icy waters, Reverend Harper swam from person to person searching for the unsaved so that he might lead them to Jesus. His last words before sinking into the ocean’s depths –he had given his life vest to another—was “Believe on the Name of the Lord Jesus and you will be saved!”

A few years ago, our local science and exploration center hosted a Titanic exhibition. Hollywood may have capitalized on the untimely demise of fifteen-hundred people, but the exhibition humanized it. Until then, it was easy for me to think of the sunken Titanic as just another heart-breaking historical event. But when I placed my hand on the display wall which had been cooled to the temperature of the icy Atlantic waters into which the terrified passengers were plunged, the whole catastrophe became more real to me. I was then able to view the various other displays from an entirely different perspective.

The personal belongings exhibits, for example, were very sobering. The ship’s victims were not just statistics; they were real people. Beyond that, the immeasurable loss of human life seemed all the more grievous when viewing the actual photographs of several passengers. Putting faces to the names of those who died, especially, made everything more relevant.

I thought about the survivors too. How many of these people carried the burden of guilt to their graves? Yes, mistakes were made. But rather than pointing fingers of blame, we should instead learn from those mistakes and not repeat them.

Most of Titanic’s mistakes were made only because it was believed by the vast majority that the Titanic was completely unsinkable. Likewise, many people today think that regardless of isolated global disasters, the world as we know it will never be destroyed. The body of Christ knows better. Scripture foretells what will befall this earth; and we know the destiny of those who do not accept Jesus as their Messiah when it does. These people are, as one old hymn says, “sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore –very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more….”

I ask you again, is there any greater tragedy than the loss of human life, especially if that loss could have been prevented? Absolutely not! To stand-by and let someone perish without trying to save them is unthinkable. I pray that we, the Body of Christ, never become apathetic to the plight of those who are lost.

Like Reverend Harper, we must be diligently about the Father’s business until the very end. The world learned of the Reverend’s unfailing devotion from the testimony of a Titanic survivor. He was floating atop debris when the Reverend swam up to him and asked if he was saved. Not only did the young man reply ‘no,’ he refused the offer of salvation. Reverend Harper then removed his life vest and gave it to the young man. “Then you need this more than I,” he said, and swam to the next person.

Shortly before he sank to his watery grave, the reverend swam back to this young man and offered him one last chance to receive Jesus Christ as his Savior. Deeply touched by Reverend Harper’s act of compassion, the young man softened his heart and accepted Jesus. Of the fifteen-hundred people that went into the icy water, only six were rescued; he was one of them.

I can only imagine how that man must’ve felt the first time he heard the words to the aforementioned hymn, “….But the master of the sea heard my despairing cry, from the waters lifted me, now safe am I. Love lifted me… When nothing else could help, love lifted me.”

I wonder, is it possible that after such a miraculous rescue the man’s faith was sinkable? Unthinkable!