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Last Updated: 2008 June 23. Author: Theodore Wedel, Washington, D.C.
Photo: No more life saving!
There on a dangerous sea coast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a
crude little life-saving station. The building was just a hut, and there was
only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea,
and with no thought for themselves, went out day and night tirelessly searching
for the lost. Some of those who were saved and various others in the surrounding
area wanted to become associated with the station and gave of their time and
money and effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new
crews trained. The little life-saving station grew.
Some of the members of the life-saving station were unhappy that the building
was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should
be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. They replaced the
emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building. Now
the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and
they decorated it beautifully because they used it as a sort of club. Fewer
members were now interested in going to sea on life-saving missions, so they
hired lifeboat crews to do this work. The life-saving motif still prevailed in
the club’s decorations, and there was a liturgical life-boat in the room where
the club’s initiations were held. About this time a large ship wrecked off the
coast, and the hired crews brought in boat loads of cold, wet and half-drowned
people. They were dirty and sick. The beautiful new club was in chaos. So the
property committee immediately had a shower house build outside the club where
victims of shipwrecks could be cleaned up before coming inside.
At the next meeting, there was a split among the club membership. Most of the
members wanted to stop the club’s life-saving activities as being unpleasant and
a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Some members insisted upon
life-saving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called
a life-saving station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they
wanted to save lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in
those waters, they could begin their own life-saving station. So they did.
As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had
occurred in the old. It evolved into a club, and yet another life-saving station
was founded. History continued to repeat itself, and if you visit that sea coast
today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs along that shore. Shipwrecks
are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown.
Have we forgotten the urgency of evangelism and to save souls as we enjoy the comforts of the Church?
Fishless Fishermen's Fellowship