For fourteen days they were at the mercy of the storm, most of the time without food. Everything that wasn’t “nailed down” had been thrown overboard, and they had given up all hope of being saved.
Paul warned them it wouldn’t end well, and they didn’t listen. Still, the Lord assured Paul that none would lose their lives, and Paul shared that with his shipmates. On the fourteenth night they realized they were near land, so they dropped anchor, hoping the ship would hold together long enough to make a run at the beach during daylight. Some of the men tried to slip away in the lifeboat, but Paul warned the centurion guarding him that if that happened, the centurion would not be saved.
The centurion did the unthinkable; he got rid of the lifeboat. He cut the ropes and let it drift away. He was “all-in.” From a human perspective it made more sense to keep the lifeboat "just in case," but the centurion thought his best option was to put his trust in God, even if that trust was only by proxy through Paul.
A friend of mine once ignored the leading of God to go on a short-term mission trip. The region to which God was calling him was just too dangerous, and then he ended up almost being killed at home in a traffic accident. That’s when he learned the safest thing to do is to trust God, even when it doesn’t seem to make sense.
This all makes me wonder where the lifeboats are in my life. Where am I fooling myself, thinking I’m all in and yet holding on to other options just in case? Where is God calling me to sell out, and yet I’m keeping a lifeboat around because it makes sense? Where are the ropes that need to be cut make sure my trust is in God and nowhere else?
What about you? Are you letting anything hang around that might tempt you to trust someone or something other than God? Maybe it’s time to sharpen some knives and cuts some ropes.
(See Acts 27 for the story as it’s told in the Bible.)
