On the Boat?

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to bring you some new light to maybe one of the most cliche Bible stories of all time.

I'm going to tell you about it in a way I have never thought of before.
A way I didn't hear a sermon about.
A way I didn't come up with on my own.
But in a way God taught me through a little boy today.

Noah's Ark.

I was invited to help at a tutoring program in a small church in Pitcarin once a week.
I went today, knowing it was something I wanted to do, but not sure if I would be able to make it an every week thing.
But I thought I'd check it out, see what I can do and how I can help.
Really just wanting to show God's love to these kids as best as I could.

I met some very special children tonight. All so beautiful, all wanting love, and all needing help with their homework :)

Quick recap:
All the children got there and got a snack.
We (all the volunteers) had this opportunity to talk to the kids and get to know some of them.
I learned a few names that I'll hopefully remember :)
Then they split the kids up into groups by grade.
I ended up with a boy in 2nd grade.
I had a blast helping him and quickly discovered what works and what doesn't when it comes to teaching and helping him.
We worked great together and I hope I will have the opportunity to work with him again.

After the tutoring time, all the children were brought into the church sanctuary for the Bible story.

This week's story was Noah's Ark.

The pastor told the story, which you can find in Genesis chapters 6-9 if you're new to this!
When he finished, he asked the kids, "Do you think it was scary to be on the boat?"
(The answer he was looking for was yes)
One of the boys shouted at the top of his lungs,

"No, it was scary to be OFF the boat!"

Everyone laughed and the pastor went on with his story, but that stuck with me.
That boy was so right.

Consider the boat parallel to being a Christian.

(Note: When I say being a Christian, I mean living full out for Jesus Christ. Believing in God and living like it.)

Sometimes it IS scary to be on the boat.
I mean first of all, Noah was riduculed when he was building that boat.
No one believed him, no one stuck by him. (except his family who came along for the ride)
He wasn't encouraged. It wasn't sugar coated fun building a boat with everyone helping you.
It was hard work.
No one was on his side.

That's scary sometimes, right?

It's hard to be a Christian in this world.
I will be the first to admit that.
Sometimes we feel so alone.
Sometimes we're made fun of and sometimes even persecuted for our faith.
It's hard work,
and the world isn't coming around patting our backs and saying good job.
They don't even want us most of the time.

They didn't even want Noah.
He stood out.
Majorly.
If we're doing it right, so do we.
Majorly.

Scary sometimes.
Unsure, to say the least.

And then when he was actually ON the boat.
Ummm, a straight up torrential downpour for 40 days and 40 nights?
Everyone else DIED?
He felt like the only person in the world, and he pretty much was.
Here he was on a huge boat with rain pouring down,
maybe thinking God, I did all this for you and this is what I get?
Everything is falling apart around me?
Where are you?

So I'm sure you've felt like this from time to time.
You might even feel like it now.
Like God, I'm telling people about you, I'm talking to you, I'm reading your word, I go to church, I'm living for you as best I can,
so why is ____________ happening.
Fill in the blank.
Why is my family falling apart.
Why am I losing friends.
Why is my grandma sick.
Why am I failing math.
Why is my world crashing down.

You know the feeling, right?
That's scary sometimes.
We're not God.
We can't see the big picture.
We're human. We freak out sometimes.
It happens.

We get frustrated with God when we should just trust Him.
He's got it under control.
But, like I said, we're human.

But you know what?
God came through for Noah.
The flood ended.
He sent a rainbow to promise that He would never flood the earth again.
God saved Noah.

And God comes through for us. Always.
The storms in our lives? They're not forever.
The'll end.
And we have God's promise that He will never leave us.
He'll save us.

All of us on the boat are going to Heaven, eternal paradise, to be forever in the perfect presence of God.
Where all our fears, all our pain, all our sin, all our sorrow, all our despair, will be GONE.
FOREVER.

Now, that little boy was right.

It's scary to be off the boat.

Noah had some hard times on that boat.
I'm not saying it was easy.
I'm not saying it's going to be easy for us.
But Noah was backed by the promise of God.
He had something better waiting for him, and he knew it.
So do we.
It's hard now, but after this life, (which is a drop in the bucket compared to eternity), we get out.
God's gonna save us from it.

But what about the people off the boat?

The people off the boat died.
There's no way to put that nicely.
They drowned. They suffocated in their own sin.
And they didn't have safety waiting on the other side.

The people off the boat. The ones who don't know the saving power and love of Jesus.
They're dying.
They're drowning.
They're trying to satisfy themselves, trying to make themselves feel better,
searching for and seeking some way to feel any amount of happiness, for however long or short of time.
It doesn't work.

And they don't have Heaven waiting for them.
They have hell.
They have eternal torture, worse than anything they'll go through here.

So, as hard as it is sometimes to be on the boat,
it's scarier to be off the boat.

Remember that.