Written by Pastor Jack Wellman– Harriet Beecher Stowe
Nearing the Shore
Years ago a lady was trying to swim the English Channel but the fog was so thick you could barely see ten feet in front of you. This lady swam for miles and miles before she finally decided to give up. Those on the boat accompanying her said, “You’re almost there” but she insisted she was done so when she climbed into the boat, she started hearing sounds from the shoreline. She only had about half a mile to go. If she had known that, she said she wouldn’t have given up.
Fighting the Tide
Any old dead fish can float downstream, but only those fighting the current will survive. If trout don’t make it up the river, they can’t reproduce, so they must fight the tide or the current, and swim upstream…or die. Christian lives are like that. We must swim against the stream of culture and not give up…because if we do, we’ll simply float downstream like the others and give up, and we might give up at the exact time when we’re ready to have victory over something.
The Right Place
Queen Esther was fearful in going before the king to save the Jews from an evil plot to exterminate them, because if the king didn’t raise his scepter, it could mean certain death for her (or anyone), so her uncle Mordecai told her, “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14)? Queen Esther didn’t give up…she was put in the right place for just the right time so that the Jews would be spared.
Conclusion
It does seem to be true that we should “Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn,” so Mrs. Stowe is correct. We can’t give up because we might be nearing the solution that we’ve been seeking, we must keep fighting like a fish surviving to make it upstream, and we must keep persevering because we may be brought to the right place and time, “for such a time as this.”
