Picture a beautiful beach. Some people are sun tanning, some are playing beach volleyball, some are building sandcastles, some are having picnics, some are starting a bonfire, and some are playing along the shoreline.
It’s a picture perfect day. The sun is out and everyone is living life to the full.
The lifeguard is on duty and keeping a watchful eye on the ocean.
All of a sudden the lifeguard sees something. He notices that not far in the distance, a young man is struggling. Every time he comes up for air he swallows another huge gulp of the salty sea water. He looks like he is trying to swim to shore, but it is clear that he is not going to make it on his own, no matter how hard he tries. This man is clearly on the verge of drowning!
Instinctively, the lifeguard jumps into the water and swims out to him. He wraps his powerful arms around him and brings him to the beach safely.
Initially the man is pretty shaken up, but he dries off and starts to enjoy life with everyone else on the beach.
Not too long after hanging out on the beach, he decides to go back out into the water. Perhaps he has become a better swimmer by playing beach volleyball and spending time in the sun??? Yet, he was just saved. Why would he want to go back out into the same water that almost took his very life?
Before he knows, water is filling his lungs once again, and he cannot seem to keep his head above the waves. He starts to thrash about when he feel the arms of the lifeguard once again hold him fast and bring him back to safety.
Let me fill you in on what`s really going on here in case you aren’t following the analogy. Jesus is the lifeguard, the beach is the church, and I am the person who is drowning. I am floundering about in the seas of life, trying to keep my head above the water. Worry, doubt, peer pressure, sin, temptation, bitterness, and purposelessness, are overtaking me and I begin to thrash about, but it seems to be of no use. I cannot rescue myself. I’m drowning, and I`m in desperate need of a savior.
Jesus saw my need.
Jesus came into my desperate situation.
Jesus rescued me.
The great rescue.
The Bible tells us that we are ALL in need of a savior. Not just me.
Jesus is looking to rescue you today!
There seems to be three different ways that people respond to this great rescue.
First off, once we are saved, instead of living a life of gratitude to our savior, and joining the very cause by which we have been saved, we end up leaving the beach and going back to the very waves that will inevitably take our lives for good. It is almost like we don`t even care that the lifeguard was willing to trade his life for ours so that we could be saved.
The second way people respond is almost a polar opposite reaction, but it ends up being just as senseless. We get all dried off from being rescued, and plant ourselves strong on the beach. Real strong. We immerse ourselves in beach culture. We become all-stars at beach volleyball. Or, we pick out a spot on the beach that will be comfortable to us so we can tan all day with our new beach friends. Or, we join a committee to decide who’s going to be bringing the ingredients to make the picnic bigger and better for tomorrow. Or, we start to study the sand to find what degree of moisture to sand ratio makes for the best sandcastles.
We get so comfortable with being beach bums for life, that we forget, not too long ago we didn`t even know there was a beach, and that there was a way for us to get there...the lifeguard. We fall more deeply in love with the beach then we do our savior. We get so focused on what the beach has to offer and what big event is coming up next on the beach that we fail to remember the tide is continually knocking at our door.
The ocean still exists.
And maybe, just maybe, there is someone else out there that may need help.
The life guard sits on his perch with his gaze set, not on the beach, but the ocean. His full time job is to save lives. If we understand that the lifeguard rescued us, and there is no way we could have gotten to the beach if it wasn’t for him, and we know there are others out there drowning like we were, wouldn’t it make sense that we would want to help save others?
Let us take our focus off the beach and start to put our focus on the water. Let us join the lifeguard in his cause, in his mission, in his purpose.
Which brings us to the third way we can respond to the great rescue.
Let us rise up. It is time to strap on a lifeguard flotation device, put your red short shorts on and become a lifeguard assistant. Join the Chief Lifeguard in his mission. Let his selfless act inspire you to make a difference. Let his love compel you. Once we are rescued, it doesn`t make sense for us to just stay on the beach singing our songs around a bonfire or getting our tan on. We need to follow in the lifeguard`s footsteps, in his relentless pursuit of the lost and drowning.
Let`s not stand idly by, let`s not swim away from our savior, let us join the cause of Christ and have an eternal impact on the world around us.
There is an ocean of people out there and they are in desperate need of a savior.
How will you respond?
