If you knew you could help someone who was drowning, but that person didn’t want your help, would you try and help that person anyway? How would you feel if you threw her a life preserver, and she refused to grab hold of it? Instead she chose to sputter and choke, ignoring the white Styrofoam ring floating in front of her. Why wouldn’t she take it?

You watched in dismay, as that person started to sink, too proud to grab onto the life preserver, because you were the one throwing it into the water. You knew this person hated you, and was determined to hold you at arm’s length. She didn’t want the help you were offering. Stubbornly, she refused to believe the life preserver would keep her afloat, even though the bobbing evidence showed it was her only source of hope to stay alive.

Though this person hurt you immensely, you were offering safety.  Yet this person was too proud, wanting to prove that she could keep swimming, even though she was dead tired. Gasping for air, she even started to try and swim away in the opposite direction. This person didn’t want to feel obligated to thank you for saving her life, and was willing to lose it instead.

How would you feel in this situation, as this person started sinking? Helpless? Hopeless? Angry? Afraid? Desperate? Would you say this person got what she deserved? Or would you jump in, give it all you had, and push that screaming, squirming, stubborn body back to shore? What if you managed to get that person back to shore, and then she just buried her head in the sand? How frustrating!

If a person continuously turned her back on you and refused to acknowledge the truth, would you try to share truth anyway? How? Would you speak to that person? Would you reveal the evidence on hand to help you prove your point? Would it help? Or would you simply pray for God to reveal the truth and trust in His timing?

Oh how Jesus must feel when he sees us drowning in a great sea of sorrow, refusing to grab the ring that will allow us to get pulled into the rescue boat! All we have to do is surrender, so we can be lifted up into safety, and onto God’s great big cruise ship. God has the most incredible vacation planned for us, an eternal vacation which never ends. The sights we will see! The sounds we will hear! The places we will go! If only we would let go of our pride and get into the rescue boat!

Jesus is offering us eternal life in Paradise, yet God’s children continue to sin and turn away from Him. There’s a cold dark storm out there, and the wind is about to destroy everyone and everything in its path. What person even deserves to be saved, when we laugh in the face of God’s weather advisory? No one! Not one of us deserves grace or mercy. Yet, there’s a silver lining: God gives it to us anyway! He freely offers us the perfect gift of eternal life through His Son, Jesus Christ. All we have to do is say yes to Jesus, our rescuer. He’s throwing each and every one of us a life preserver. Say yes! Get in the boat!

“The disciples went and woke him, saying, ‘Master, Master, we’re going to drown!’ He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm.” Luke 8:24  New International Version