I don’t know about you, but I really like having a back-up plan.  Heaven forbid something goes horribly wrong in my life, knowing there is a Plan B in place, “just in case” seems to help me feel a bit more secure.

Say there’s a threat of a nuclear war, however, I know the US has the world’s best missile defense system; I feel a smidgen better.  Or, let’s assume I know there are a series of neighborhood break-ins going on in our area and the police have yet to capture the perpetrators; the fact that I sleep with a gun by my side makes me  feel a tad bit safer.

The reality of these situations are though, my feeling of security is totally false.  I’m sorry, but if we are headed for World War III, I don’t care how great our missile defense system is, we’re probably not going to make it out alive.  Even if by chance I did survive, would I really want to be around for the aftermath anyway?  Not so much.

Or, if my house is going to be broken into tonight by robbers that have evaded the police for weeks and have successfully committed multiple robberies, aside from the fact I have no idea how to even shoot a gun, that gun is most likely going to get my killed.  (Just look at the statistics.)   The true reality in these situations, as well as life, is my back-up plans stink.  And if I find any sense of security in whatever circumstance I have played out in my head, I should really re-think where my sense of hope is coming from, because it’s misplaced.

The men in Acts who were traveling on a ship in which Paul was being held prisoner, did a pretty good job with this concept.  With everyone accounted for, there were two hundred and seventy-six people on the ship.  At this point these men had been battling a storm, being tossed around in the Adriatic Sea, for fourteen days.  To say they were exhausted is probably a fair assumption, wouldn’t you say?

Around this time, the sailors (being the experienced experts that they were) surmised that they were probably approaching land.  (This is why I am not a sailor.  I wouldn’t know I was anywhere near the shore until it was already under me.)  Anyway, by some amount of knowledge and understand of the seas, they realized there were getting pretty close to land, in fact, a little too close for comfort.

Now this part of the story makes sense for me.  If you think you are going to crash into land, you should probably get off the ship.  I think of it kind of like sledding as a child.  If you see a tree rapidly approaching, you should probably bail.  Sounds like a great idea to me.  Until Paul comes along and says to the men in Acts 287:31, “Unless these men remain in the ship, you yourselves cannot be saved.”

Gotta be honest, this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.  However, their next course of action causes me to really question the sailors sanity.  After all, the have been battling a storm for 14 days without food, they’ve got to be exhausted, so who knows where their minds were.

However, following Paul’s instructions verse 32 says, “Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship’s boat and let it fall away.”  Are you kidding me?  They let it fall away?  There went their life boat, floating away into the blackness of the night never to be seen again.  So much for a back-up plan.

You see, I get that they were trying to make the ship lighter should it ever hit ground.  I also get that, in the event they should run ashore, at that point they probably wouldn’t have much time to get the lifeboat on the water anyway.  Still, you never know.  You know the boy scout motto, “Always be prepared.”  Well, keeping the lifeboat available just seems like a better idea at the moment.  You can always cut the ropes later, but once they’re cut, there’s no going back.

Okay, wow.  Well, that was a tough decision, but at least now we are lighter and ready to battle the storm.  So, the next step?  I’m sure there is some amazing sailing technique that is taught in classes for the very moment; the moment you are ready to crash headlong into the shore.  What is it… Rest.

What?  Yep.  That’s what I said, the “magic cure” for an about to be shipwrecked crew is rest and nourishment.  Granted, it takes Paul to draw their attention to this fact but still…  So, Paul comes waltzing across the deck of a tattered, beaten down ship amongst an equally tattered and beaten down crew and says to them, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have been constantly watching and going without eating, having taken nothing.  Therefore I encourage you to take some food, for this is for your preservation, for not a hair from the head of any of you will perish.”

I have to admit, I can relate to the crew.  My my life is a raging storm, more often than not I have been constantly watching, fighting, paddling, doing everything I can to fight my way through the madness.  Unfortunately, many times I am so focused on the storm I forget to do what is most important.  In the sailors case it was eating, in my case it is trusting.  I forget to trust in the one who is truly in control, my Jesus.  Sometimes I forget he is still in control at all.

Also, do you notice what Paul tells them?  They needed to take in food and sustenance “for this is for your preservation.” That’s the part I forget.  Trusting God, being patient to let him work in the timing and the way he’s sees fit is certainly not to make me sufferer, it is solely for my preservation.  I very rarely am able to call that truth to my mind as I am struggling for my life.  God calls me to rest simply for my preservation.  Period.

But the story is not done.  Next, Paul takes the bread and gives thanks to the Lord in front of all the sailors.  Then they began to eat.  Verse 36 says, “All of them were encouraged and they themselves also took food.”  Take notice what they were not doing.  They were not coming up with alternative plans, they were not focusing on the raging storm (that mind you had not slowed down just because they started eating) rather, they just sat down and ate together.  The funny thing is, the men not only received much needed nourishment, but guess what they stumbled across in the process of being still?  Encouragement.  After fourteen days without eating and spending all their energy fighting for their lives, they found hope.

As much as I think my efforts in finding a way out of my own storms of life are beneficial, most of the time the reality of it is: they’re just not.  The reason my efforts are often rendered ineffective at these times is because my focus is all wrong.  My focus is all about what I can do and not who God is.

I know for me, it’s easier to feel that I am safer because I have a back-up plan.  The bottom line comes down to this:  The reason I feel I need a back-up plan is that somewhere deep in side, I have a fear that God just might not come through this one time.  Ouch.  Honesty hurts.  But it’s true.  Deep down inside when the storms rage all around me, fear can be my greatest stumbling block.   Why else would I feel that I need to fix my situation if I truly, wholeheartedly believe my God will also be my Savior in any and every situation I am called to face?

Now, let me just say, I am not saying this is easy and I am not saying I still don’t struggle with this a majority of the time.  Even as I sit here and type this I struggle to keep fear at bay.  But when I truly search the deepest parts of my soul, I believe in my God.  I believe in the power of his saving grace.  And I trust in his plans.  I also know that what I am called to do is to look to my Lord, and he will show me the way.  The rest is up to him.    Deep down though, I am willing to choose to completely put my trust in him, in this very moment.  And though that is a decision I am probably going to have to make at least twelve more times today, I really do trust my God.

This whole story in Acts 27 ends with a crazy big exclamation point in my mind.  Verse 38 re-emphasises the whole idea of being willing to throw out all my back-up plans and buy “all in” to the Lords.  ”When they had eaten enough, they began to lighten the ship by throwing out the wheat into the sea.”  The sailors truly committed to going “all in.”

The lifeboat, gone.  Extra food “just in case,” gone.  Whether they knew it or not, it was basically them and the Lord.  You could justify it made sense to try and keep the wheat.  Maybe they would somehow be able to use it if they survived.  After all, it was made clear in this story that they had no idea where they really were so how did they know there would be food even should they survive.

But that’s not the point here.  No matter where I am in my life I can always justify my back-up plan.  There will always be some reason that it just “makes sense ” to do whatever I have decided might just save me from the storm.  The problem is, most of the time that’s never true.  When my hope is resting in my back-up plan, at some point I am going to look and find my hope dissolving faster than a slug under a mountain of salt.  It’s not gonna last and it’s never gonna endure.

God didn’t save the Israelites from the Egyptians only to watch them die in the desert.  God had a plan for them all along.  God provided water for the Israelites at the exact moment they ran out.  Granted, He waited until they ran out.  The Lord also provided food from heaven to sustain them.  Granted, it was at the very time they were quite hungry.

The thing I am learning about God is that you’re never going to have what you need ahead of time.  God doesn’t prepare you today for your future fears of tomorrow.  But you can be sure, when your time of need comes, He will never let you down.  And… He’s already got an awesome plan to take care of it.  And be sure, it is a lot better than anything you could ever come up with; certainly a lot better than our missile defense system.

So today I pray, “God, grant me the grace that I need for today.  Let me be content with knowing you will provide for me in this day and help me find peace in knowing you have already taken care of tomorrow.  And though I have no idea what that looks like, Father, you are ever so trustworthy.  So, I’m done with my back-up plans and letting you know…

I’m all in.”