Tossed Overboard

I overheard the mothers talking as they edged their shopping carts towards one another.
Are you anxious to send them back?
I sure am…I can’t imagine the summer when they’re home all the time...

I assumed “they” were the little children at their feet.
I assumed “send them back” meant to pre-school and kindergarten.
It made me sad.

I am not judging the quality of their mothering.
I am sure they are good mothers.
I was sad for restlessness that seems to be infesting out hearts and our homes.

You hear it in the summer all the time…maybe even in day to day conversations.
I’m bored!
There’s nothing to do!

The culture, with a plethora of choices and activities, is suffering from boredom!

Ancient Rome was a culture that seemed invincible.
Unbelievably, Rome fell.

Rome was obsessed with its entertainment and its sports.
People of ancient Rome attended gladiatorial fights, wild beast hunts, chariot races.
Their insatiable lust for violence made them a difficult audience to entertain.
They always wanted more!

There is a saturation point when what you are obsessed with, just doesn’t thrill anymore.
You try more and more things to keep your appetite fed.

After a while, the culture declines.
It implodes because of the individualism that is killing it.
Moral decay…social breakdown…downward spiral of decency.

Amusing ourselves to death…so the book cover says.

How much of what we think we can’t live without is really so terribly important?

Paul set sail for Rome because he appealed his case to Caesar.
They set sail and landed many times during the treacherous journey.
The weather was becoming dangerous because of the timing of their voyage.
Paul warned the centurion, who chose to listen to the owner of the ship.

When a gentle south wind began to blow, they thought they had obtained what they wanted; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the “northeaster” swept down from the island. The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along. As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure. When the men had hoisted it aboard, they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Fearing that they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along. We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day we began to throw the cargo overboard. On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved. (Acts 27:13-20)

Can you imagine?
Everything that was on the ship was important to the men.
Not when their life was at stake!

In those moments, it was an easy decision.
Get rid of it!
Throw it overboard!
The “stuff” didn’t matter.

What if that was our litmus test?
What if all the entertainment, that we think we cannot live without, suddenly needed to be tossed aside?
Our life and the life of our loved ones…or our cargo?

Would all the social issues that we argue about even matter?
Would the apps, and the games, and the social media be something we would hold onto?

When put in that perspective…it is an easy choice.
It is not so easy in the day to day!

I’m bored!
There’s nothing to do!

A general malaise has fallen over us.
Nothing satisfies.
We can’t sit still.
Reading, talking face to face, turning off the TV, and even the computer.
How dare that even be suggested!

Yet when the storm comes…what do YOU think will get tossed overboard first?
I guarantee it will NOT be our family!

The solid foundational things that culture seems to be so ready to dismiss will be the very things we all hold onto in the storm!

Boredom. Malaise. Indifference.
Deadly to a culture.

It is easy to infiltrate a culture that is too busy being amused!

No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge. each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back – whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: “Watch!”
(Mark 13:32-37)

Do not let Him find you sleeping!

Convicting!