Mark
Wilkinson purchased a 16-foot boat for fishing and recreation. Apparently he
was not superstitious, because he christened his boat Titanic II after
the ill-fated luxury ship that hit an iceberg and sank in 1912. Titanic II’s
maiden voyage out of a harbor in Dorset, England, went well. But when Wilkinson
headed back, the boat started taking on water. Soon he was clinging to a rail
waiting for rescue. Wilkinson reportedly said, “It’s all a bit embarrassing,
and I got pretty fed up with people asking me if I had hit an iceberg.” This
was followed by an eyewitness who said, “It wasn’t a very big boat—I think an
ice cube could have sunk it!”
The story
of Titanic II is quite ironic. But it also makes me think of the
original Titanic and the danger of misplaced trust. The builders of that
ocean liner were absolutely confident that their ship was unsinkable. But how
wrong they were! Jeremiah reminds us: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and
makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord” (Jer. 17:5).
All of us are tempted to seek security in people or things. How often we need to be reminded to forsake these false confidences and turn back to God. Are you putting your trust in something other than Him?
Those who put their trust in God will never be disappointed. (RBC)
