Ninety - Seven Years Ago Today!

This photograph was taken ninety-seven years ago today on April 11, 1912. It is possibly the last photograph of the Titanic taken before she sank early on Monday morning, April 15, 1912. I got interested in the Titanic in middle school. Now I probably have one of the few (hmmm....only) Titanic dining room in the state....weird, huh?

I think part of the reason for the fascination is my continuing pursuit of finding God's truth reflected in human events. My collection reminds me to keep focused on things that matter. If I ramble, you won't read this...heck, you may have already skipped it. At any rate, the thing that grabs me today is how the Titanic reminds me of the world....people are confident in their safety and in their indifference to reality.

The "reality" of that Thursday, 97 years ago, was that the passengers had complete confidence in the ship, its designers, and its crew. So much so, they didn't notice or care that: there were lifeboats enough only for half of them, that the lookouts the night of the collision did not have binoculars, that the captain and crew ignored six iceberg warnings the day of the collision.

They were having a good time, eating great food, on a brand new ship...no need to worry about the future, and certainly not to worry about their death.

The reality was, however, the ship was not on a safe journey, but on one that would end in tragedy. Sort of like life now. As I read some posts on Facebook, sometimes I get the sense that we are...forgive me..."twittering away" our lives (NO, I am not saying we have to be profound every day, or in every post!). How much of what we're doing or saying on a given day matters? Really matters?

I hope everyone takes time regularly to encourage each other, to help each others, to speak words of truth and love to each other. So many in our society seem not to take time to focus on the realities of the journey of life....especially the reality of a living God Who is God and Who is offering a view of reality that IS reality...so that our journey will not end in tragedy, but in arriving at THE destination for which we were created.....our eternal home with Him.

We will all collide with death (if Christ doesn't return in our lifetime) some time in the future, including everyone you know, so I hope we all can remember to live each day following the only One Who is qualified to guide us home....our Savior and Lord.

One parting dose of reality from James, who didn't seem to have a problem communicating the nature of reality: ¹³Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." ¹⁴Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ¹⁵Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." ¹⁶As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. James 4:13-17