I appreciate the helpful comment or suggestion. In fact, I once heard that feedback is the breakfast of champions. Perhaps that is why every successful athlete always has a coach, trainer, or skills development personnel that analyzes the athlete’s performance and gives feedback and suggestions for improvements. The really good athletes might have several people helping them, each on focused on a different element of their game—skills, endurance, agility, strength, and even mental preparedness.
This past week I should have gone to my source of great people who give me feedback, or in this case, they give me great illustrations. Given that my sermon talked about living through personal crisis and understanding the difference between a man-made crisis and a God-made crisis, I found this illustration waiting for me later in the day. It perhaps conveys the point I was trying to make better than I did on Sunday.
The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him. Every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect himself from the elements, and to store his few possessions.
One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, with smoke rolling up to the sky. He felt the worst had happened, and everything was lost. He was stunned with disbelief, grief, and anger. He cried out, 'God! How could you do this to me?'
Early the next day, he was awakened by the sound of a ship approaching the island! It had come to rescue him! 'How did you know I was here?' asked the weary man of his rescuers.
'We saw your smoke signal,' they replied.
It's easy to get discouraged when things are going bad, but we shouldn't lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of our pain and suffering.
Remember that the next time your little hut seems to be burning to the ground. It just may be a smoke signal that summons the grace of God.
Don’t give apathy a place to take root and flourish in your spiritual life. Come to church this Sunday. You will be surprised at the difference it can make for yourself and also the people around you.
Travis
