As believers, the following challenges us to meaningful reexamination of both personal and corporate motivation as we enter the New Year. Our thanks to senior pastor Brian Classen of the Shadow Lake Community Church, Papillion (Omaha area), Nebraska for permission to share it.
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AN ACCOUNT IS shared of a dangerous place on the eastern seacoast where shipwrecks often happened. There was once a crude, little life saving station - the building was just a hut and there was only one little life saving boat. But the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea and, with no thought for their own safety searched tirelessly, day and night, for the lost.
Some of the people who were saved and various others in the surrounding community wanted to become associated with this life saving station and to give of their time and money for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews were trained. The little life saving station began to grow.
Some of the members of the life saving station were unhappy that the building was so small and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided for those who were being saved from the sea. They replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarging building.
Now the life saving station became a popular gathering place for its members and they decorated it beautifully and furnished it equisitely. It became - sort of a club. Few members were now interested in going into the sea on life saving missions, so they hired a professional lifeboat crew that was especially trained to save lives. The life saving motif still prevailed and a ceremonial life boat was placed in the room in honor of all those who had been saved in the past.
About that time a large ship wrecked off the coast and the hired crew brought in boatloads of cold, wet, and half drowned people. They were dirty and sick. Some of them were from a foreign country and couldn't speak the language. The beautiful new club was in chaos.
So the property committee of the life saving station called an emergency meeting and decided to build a shower house outside the club where victims of shipwrecks could be cleaned up and properly instructed regarding the rules of the life saving station.
At the next meeting there was, as one might imagine, a split in the club's membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club's life saving activities because they were both unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Other members, however, insisted that saving lives was the primary purpose of the club. They pointed out that they were still called a life saving station. But, finally, they were voted down and told that if they wanted to save lives they could start their own life saving station down the coast.
And so they did. As the years went by, the new life saving station experienced the same changes that had occurred with the old. It evolved into a club and yet another life saving station was founded. History continued to repeat itself and if you drive along the eastern seacoast today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs along that very shore. Shipwrecks still occur in that water, but now most of the people drown.
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Again, our thanks to Pastor Classen.
Burl Ratzsch
