Many people have seen the billion-dollar Disney flick "Frozen" by now. One very brief scene in the movie deals with a shipwreck. It happens as most would expect, I suppose. The destruction of the vessel comes at the hands of an overwhelming storm. There is something ominous about ships lost at sea and many are indeed the victims
of huge waves caused by hurricanes or large storms of some kind.
But that is not the case with one of the most infamous shipwrecks of all time. In fact, it was the absence of a storm...a lack of
waves, that contributed to the USS Titanic colliding with an iceberg at 11:40 pm on April
14, 1912, and sinking in the depths of the icy Atlantic, one hundred and two years ago. On that night the
weather and the sea conditions were perfect.
There was no wind at all..there were no
waves. It was a flat and ominously calm ocean. The night sky was dark and moonless, which
made it difficult to see an obstacle in the distance. On just such a night,
waves of any kind would have made anything in the ocean more visible. Even small waves would
have caused a bright phosphorescent line around the base of the iceberg, due to
the millions of dinoflagellates that migrate to the ocean surface at
night.
These tiny plankton glow brightly even
with the slightest disturbance. Alas, on April 14th, 1912 at 11:40 PM there was not even a gentle
swell that could have caused a phosphorescent line around the iceberg. Understand that these were extremely rare conditions for
the North Atlantic in April. On almost any other night the huge iceberg
would probably have been seen by the lookouts in enough time for the Titanic to
avoid hitting it.
Similarly, at times, even when danger lurks, all can seem quiet in our spiritual lives. No pressing need calls us to fall to our knees and cry out to God. No sense of urgency exists to receive a word from a treasured Bible passage. In fact, just the opposite can be true. All can seem very nice and if we are not on our guard, we can begin to become comfortably numb.
Now this is not to suggest that we should look for a demon behind every rock, but it does mean that we must be vigilant in our spiritual disciplines even when there seems to be nothing in our lives but smooth sailing. Paul exhorts us to pray at ALL times not just the troubled ones. Know that God holds you in the good times and the bad. He is the same...always...always.
The waves will come and when they do, James reminds us to count it all joy when we face trials. Why? Because the phosphorescent glow of our trials can keep us sharp and alert and prevent us from a much larger disaster. The choppy troubled waters can build our courage and character to withstand the hard days ahead. The loss of the Titanic haunts us for many reasons. One being that it seemed so unnecessary...so avoidable.I pray we do not make the same mistake in our spiritual walk.