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Two Boats


The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. (II Peter 3:9-10)
There’s and old story about a guy trapped on a roof in a flood. Someone comes along in a rowboat, and the guy refuses to leave the roof, proclaiming, “God will rescue me!” As the water continues to rise, someone from the Cajun Navy offers him a ride, and the man says again, “God will rescue me!” Later, as the water is splashing onto the roof, someone in a helicopter offers help, and the man swallows, but insists, “God will rescue me.” The house collapses, the man perishes, and as he stands before God, he asks, “Why didn’t you rescue me?
And God says, “I sent a rowboat, a member of the Cajun Navy, and a helicopter. Why didn’t you listen?
I don’t really like this story, because it seems designed to ridicule faith, but it does illustrate what does happen in our lives. Often, God acts, and because He doesn’t act the way we expect, we miss it or maybe even reject it. Often, God doesn’t seem to act, and we think that either He doesn’t care, or that He isn’t able when the reality is that He is showing patience with us or with people we don’t think deserve said patience. 
God has been so, so patient with me as I blunder through life, vacillating between extreme over-confidence and cowardice with almost no warning, holding on to false gods that I love and hate and can’t seem to keep from placing on the throne of my life in His place. He is patient with others when we think He should strike them with lightning bolts. He is patient with the world, content to give each of us opportunities to turn to Him.
And sometimes, we judge Him for His patience, because we want to see justice done our way. That person, or those people, should suffer for what they’ve done! And we’re right, they should suffer. And because we want that suffering, we don’t recognize that we’re the member of the Cajun Navy set to give them a ride to safety, or we refuse. We’re right, they should suffer, but so should we, and so should our beloved friend or relative for whom we accuse God of punishing for some small sin or weakness, or taking him/her “too soon,” without giving him/her a chance.
God gives us every second of every day to repent. He gives us every breath and heartbeat to repent. But He does not give us forever.

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