Paul had no authority on an overloaded ship that was being pushed through a winter’s gale towards a Maltese reef. He was a prisoner. He was not the captain, not the sergeant of marines entrusted in keeping the prisoners secure.
But Paul led the 257 souls on that boat to safety.
In times of crisis, those who can lead do so. Those who have the nominal authority may be the leaders, or i t may come from those who have not formal power. For moral authority outweighs position, and even skill: Paul was not a sailor. I will leave to the naval historians a discussion of the techniques that these sailors used, noting but one thing: the ship was overloaded.
When the fourteenth night had come, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land. So they took a sounding and found twenty fathoms. A little farther on they took a sounding again and found fifteen fathoms. And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, and had lowered the ship’s boat into the sea under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship’s boat and let it go.
As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing. Therefore I urge you to take some food. For it will give you strength, for not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you.” And when he had said these things, he took bread, and giving thanks to God in the presence of all he broke it and began to eat. Then they all were encouraged and ate some food themselves. (We were in all 276 persons in the ship.) And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea.
Now when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach, on which they planned if possible to run the ship ashore. So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes that tied the rudders. Then hoisting the foresail to the wind they made for the beach. But striking a reef, they ran the vessel aground. The bow stuck and remained immovable, and the stern was being broken up by the surf. The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any should swim away and escape. But the centurion, wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land, and the rest on planks or on pieces of the ship. And so it was that all were brought safely to land.
We are currently in a crisis. We are not seeing the train coming down the tracks: it is here: we are not falling off a cliff, we are hitting the bottom. THe social democratic experiment is going to fail. One cannot subsidize the feckless and idle and stack them in Ghettos without accepting that they will riot (the Romans knew that, the bastards, and used the mob to perform violence they would disavow), or expecting people to move to your region for the corn dole.
Making the cost of such welfare untenable.
So those from the left (and the left holds most positions in the deep state: conservatives aim to run businesses, the left to work for the state and get rich doing it) us facing the end of their system. As with the soviets, the cracks in managed democracies are appearing. The hard-core leftists want us to go full socialist, but we have seen what happens then: the most recent example is Venezuela.
At this time the church can lead. For we should speak truth: even harshly. We need to tell all around that there is no lifeboat that can get you salvation, there is no alternative method but to become shipwrecked before the cross.
We can reform ourselves: we can rediscover the ancient truths that women and men are different, and the body of Christ functions better with male leadership, and that male leadership will he harsher on themselves than they will be on women. We need to remind all that women need to to be taught to care for their husbands and children, while men need to be commanded to choose to love.
Ans we need to set up systems of care for the frail and ill that include not lethe: for the leftists, in their death spiral, praise the abortionists and wish for euthanasia, as they want to make suicide acceptable, dignified, and pain-free, ignoring the damnation that comes from both acts.
The politicians and armies and security staff now have little power. The public servants think they rule, but are bound by the very rules and regulations they have chained us with. But we can ignore them. We can lead. We can speak truth.
It is the Holy Spirit that enables any to reform and follow.
