Have
you ever put heart and soul into something, prayed over it, worked at it with a
good heart because you believed it to be what God wanted, and finally seen it
"run aground"?
The
story of Paul's voyage as a prisoner across the Adriatic Sea tells how an angel
stood beside him and told him not to be afraid (in spite of winds of hurricane
force), for God would spare his life and the lives of all with him on board
ship. Paul cheered his guards and fellow-passengers with that word, but added, "Nevertheless,
we must run aground on some island" (Acts 27:26).
It
would seem that the God who promises to spare all hands might have "done
the job right", saved the ship as well, and spared them the ignominy of
having to make it to land on the flotsam and jetsam that was left. The fact is
He did not, nor does He always spare us.
Heaven
is not here, it's There. If we were given all we wanted here, our hearts would
settle for this world rather than the next. God is forever luring us up and
away from this one, wooing us to Himself and His still invisible Kingdom where
we will certainly find what we so keenly long for.
"Running
aground", then, is not "the end of the world". But it helps to
"Lead us not into temptation" -- the temptation complacently to
settle for visible things.
--
Elisabeth Elliot in “The Elisabeth Elliot Newsletter”, Sep/Oct 1988
#4214
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