C S Lewis uses ship as an analogy to clarify the purpose of human being. He stated when a ship is on the high seas, it must answer three important questions.
- First is how to keep from sinking which refers to ‘personal ethics.’
- Second is how to keep from bumping into other ships referring to the ‘social ethics.’
- Third, why the ship is out on the high seas in the first place which refers to the ‘essence of ethics.
How true! We all must ensure that regardless of being a ship or boat, it should stay afloat. This means we must take care to keep it in a sailing state and then the other two follow.
Everything that exist serves a particular purpose. If you carefully observe all the non-living things in your house serve a specific purpose. At any point it fails to serve the purpose it is discarded. How do we understand this in connection to life’s purpose? If non-living things can serve a specific purpose, then how much the purpose of God. We are all created for a purpose. The Bible states that we are God’s masterpiece because we are made in His image.
Gunder Gunderson states this in plain poetical lines so profoundly referring life to a boat.
“Everything's a boat.
We all know buying a boat is a big deal because boats take lots of upkeep
But everything's a boat.
Everything we buy takes storage, or attention, or security, or maintenance, or upgrades.
Seneca said the things we own, own us.
Everything's a boat.
May our first concern be our purity, not our publicity; our depth, not our reach; faithfulness, and never fame.”
If you compare your life’s philosophy to a boat, then you would realise you have to be careful in what you choose because at the end it is going to take the space in the boat. You may find the need of getting everything you see but it can risk the boat. The boat of many people is overloaded and in a verge of sinking, maybe some boats have sunk already due to, too many unnecessary things that has taken the space. How are you going to choose the right thing for you?
Let us not forget that we are not just the body, but a soul too, that longs to connect with the GOD of heavens and the earth, the Savior who has the power to forgive the sins of the mankind and in whom we also have resurrection. Sadly, as we fill our boats with our own the gods - the god of money, possession, pleasure, power, fans, etc., none makes an impact on our soul and the way we ought to live. Like the writer who stated, ‘Everything is a Boat’, today we live in a society and culture where everything is a god or for that matter anytime someone can be made god. Truth most often is a missing element.
I urge you to carefully choose the essentials that will help us survive well without sinking. Jesus stated, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” The component of soul is an integral and the important element imbibed in human body. What you choose from this materialistic world can make you helpless. You need a Savior, a God in whom you can find meaning in life and hope in eternal life. Jesus is the only way if you believe and accept Him as Savior to find forgiveness from sins, hope in this world and for eternity. Remember, Jesus is the only God who conquered death and was resurrected. This will change your entire course of life journey. Would you consider knowing Him more?
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