Shipwrecked Faith

   You may remember the recent shipwreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship in Italy.  The Concordia captain, Francesco Schettino, is under house arrest, accused of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship before all passengers had been evacuated.  He apparently took the ship off its charted course to bring it closer to the island to impress some passengers and crew.  That change of course lead to the ship hitting a reef and capsizing off the island of Giglio.   

   This tragedy is made so much more terrible by the fact that it could have been so easily avoided.  The Captain claimed that the reef was not on his charts, but it known on all the tourist maps.  The information to keep the ship from danger was readily avaible, the course had been properly plotted but it was ignored and tragedy resulted.

   Paul uses the metaphor of a shipwreck in 1^st Timothy 1:19, “keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.” Here he is encouraging Timothy not to be like those that have decided to “go their own way” in regard to faith.  That decision has caused their faith to be shipwrecked.  Paul knew firsthand what it was like to be in shipwreck. (Acts 27, 2^nd Corinthians 11:25). The danger in running aground is always there but not always easy to spot by the person in the boat. That is why it is vital to trust the navigation charts and not go off course.  By the time you “see it for yourself” it is too late, the ship is sinking.

   Many today are ignoring the course plotted for us to heaven by Jesus. They feel they can make course change in order to please the world around them. Unfortunately, those changes will also lead to disaster.  To keep ourselves from a “shipwrecked faith” we must stay true to the course.