Tip of My Iceberg

What does one do when stuck inside, limited to interactions with whoever is within four walls, and being on a computer more than I ever imagined?

Watch old movies that remind me of times when I was younger and didn’t know what pandemic meant.

I’m a huge fan of old Disney movies–anything made for kids that’s somewhat lighthearted and not full of drama, trauma, and scary stuff is right up my alley. One of my favorites growing up was “The Swiss Family Robinson“. Based on a novel by Johann D Wyss written in 1812, it’s the story of a Swiss family fleeing the Napoleonic wars and heading to New Guinea. They are attacked by pirates and head into a storm to escape but are shipwrecked near an uninhabited island.

Watching it the other day, I was reminded of how easily I was drawn into the adventure. When I was growing up, all I wanted to do was escape to an uninhabited island (except for my sisters and brother and some friends) and create a new life without rules, full of adventure and fun.

The shipwreck was a big part of the story. As it is every story.

108 years ago today the Titanic received its first ice warning. Which went unheeded. By the early hours of April 15, 1912, it had sunk.

If we don’t listen to warnings, tragedy can happen.

This pandemic has created a sense of each of us being individually shipwrecked in unchartered waters. Bunkered down in homes, doing things creatively that we’ve not done before, life becomes a new adventure. We’re learning to make do with less than and adapting to our circumstances.

The pirates in each of our stories are the hard things that attack when we have no weapons to use. Losing jobs. Families are thrown together without respite from each other. Relationships that have been hidden behind closed doors that are harder now and scream to be dealt with. Loneliness and isolation. Loss and pain. Overwhelming grief and disruption.

It feels like there’s no immediate escape from all that’s happening. Is my shipwreck salvageable?

It is.

This is one more in a series of storms in life that we must confront. We can’t deny it, minimize it, ignore it.

Are we going to live in the shipwreck, moaning about what’s been lost, becoming stuck in a downward spiral of all that we can’t control?

Or will we seek to be salvaged by the only One who knows the full extent of the storm?

Shipwrecks in life. Like the Titanic, we all have high expectations of how we will fare in life.

We don’t plan for or pay attention to the rocks and icebergs that are out there.

Jesus does. He is on the boat of life with us if we invite Him to be. He doesn’t do away with the storms; He won’t keep us from hitting the rocks.

That’s life.

He will stay with us, calming our hearts even when the waves are rough. He alone can salvage in us what is worth saving.

Our hearts.

Shipwreck or salvage?

Personally, I’m tired of being wet and stuck.