This morning I was reading a news article on the large number of tourists who had traveled to Calangute, Goa, India to celebrate the Ganesh Chathurthi holidays. Calangute, Goa is on the far western side of India on the Arabian Sea and is home to one of the most spectacular beaches in the world. It is absolutely gorgeous. The article was talking about how around a month ago, a large number of tourists, around 400, were swimming in a specified and well marked "no swim" zone. The zone had been designated as such do to some very strong and dangerous rip tides. The life guards on duty that day had been fighting the crowds, begging them to please come out of the zone.
400 people...well marked danger zone...what could possibly go wrong?
Sure enough, throughout the course of the day four different individuals began to shout for help as they were dragged out by the forceful rip tides. The lifeguards immediately sprung into action and were able to rescue the four different individuals at great danger to themselves.
It was a day of extreme and ongoing stupidity, offset by strong and vigilant heroism.
The point the article failed to make, is that there was absolutely no mention of that due to stupidity of the large group, it would have served them right if the lifeguards had just allowed those four to drown.
It made no mention that the four did not deserve to be rescued from the rip tide, there was absolutely nothing they could do to earn the rescuing of the lifeguards, and it made no mention of the free gift of rescue that the lifeguards had given to those pathetically rebellious individuals.
It simply lauded them as heros, and I'm sure they were glad to have done it. After all, it was why they were there on the beach that day, to rescue those who have no possible way of rescuing themselves.
Why then, when it comes to talking about God, do we go to places of extreme pain and poverty and abuse and even rampant death, like Calcutta, and share with them the "good news" that God is offering them the "free gift" of rescue, the "free gift" of salvation?
Why have we come to communicate to a lost and broken world that they are in dire need of rescuing, but they don't deserve it because they are horrible and terrible sinners and they have offended God.
No one ever asks the lifeguard if she was offended by the drowning person.
When you really think about it, it's kind of like asking the question, what does black taste like?
Or what does the moon think about the recent government shut down?
Or how deep is fire?
They don't have anything to do with one another. One can analyze and philosophize and pontificate all they would like, and the two simply have nothing to do with one another.
When it comes to rescue, when it comes to salvation, the one who has the ability to rescue simply does not think about whether or not she should; she simply does.
...unless, of course, that one who has the ability is not good. Unless, of course, they cannot be trusted.
I offer to you that God is in fact good, that He can be trusted above all, that He is love. I offer to you the picture that Jesus offered Jerusalem as He stood lamenting in sorrow over her:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
If ever there were a picture of an underserving city, this is it; and still Jesus' desire is to gather them to Himself like a hen gathers her chicks in protection, in safety, in rescue.
If we are to begin to trust, to have confidence in God with our very lives, this is the first thing that must begin to change in our thinking. God's desire is to rescue you, even from the mess of a life you very well may have created for yourself, and certainly from the mess of a life that may have been thrust upon you.
To think about God's desire to rescue you as a "free gift that you don't deserve" is like asking if paint is happy.
Do you deserve to be rescued? Who cares! That isn't the point!
His ability and desire to rescue are the point.
...we can worry about what went wrong later in order to avoid the rip tide again in the future.
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