“This evening, we will be making our cruise to nowhere during dinner,” came the announcement over the ship’s public address system. Lynne and I were on a Danube River cruise with my twin brother Roger and his wife Shirley. We had started in Budapest, and as we progressed to the west, we noticed that the river seemed to be low. We had never been on this river before, so we weren’t all that concerned.
Two nights before our last stop, our cruise director brought the bad news during the regular evening briefing for the next day. Because of low river levels in the next several locks, the ship would not be able to move farther up the river. That was when we began the “cruise to nowhere.” I’d never been to “nowhere” before, so I went up on deck to take a picture for the record. This is what “nowhere” looked like that night:
It is always beneficial to have a destination in mind. As Christians, our destination has been secured by the shed blood of Jesus Christ and the promise He has given to us. “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:2-2, ESV)
So, while our journey may have twists and turns and ups and downs, the destination has been set, and we will arrive at God’s appointed time.
The non-Christian has decided that he has no desire to cruise to the Christian’s destination. As a result, he is, in the short term, “cruising to nowhere.” In Proverbs 14:12 we are told, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” Proverbs 21:2 also tells us, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.”
The lost individual, lacking a set destination, is endlessly adrift in his “cruise to nowhere,” not knowing there is a destructive waterfall ahead. Only those who have escaped the destruction of the waterfall are in a position to warn those who are “cruising to nowhere.” The Apostle Paul tells us why lost people are blinded to this danger: “And even if our gospel is veiled [covered up], it is veiled to those who are perishing [lost]. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)
In Ezekiel 3:17-21, God called Ezekiel to be a “watchman” to Israel, warning the wicked to turn away from their unrighteousness. As Christians, we are also called to warn the lost because God’s desire is for “all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4) To be a watchman, we need to be warning men and women of the eternal peril ahead, not watching them sail to their destruction.
What say ye, Man of Valor?
Semper Fidelis!
