Lessons from the Titanic...

“The Kingdom of God … is like yeast used by a woman making bread.  Even though she used a large amount of flour, the yeast permeated every part of the dough.”  Luke 13.20-21

The Titanic.  Stories have been told about this legendary seafaring vessel.  Books have been written to chronicle the events associated with her ill-fated maiden voyage. The 1997 blockbuster, “Titanic”, won 11 Oscars and went on to become the highest-grossing film of all time.  One film critic states, “You don’t just watch Titanic; you experience it.”  While some of us may relate to characters in the film, I tend to think we more closely identify with the ship itself.  Let me explain.

The Titanic was touted as “unsinkable”, primarily because of its unique design.  The hull was subdivided into sixteen watertight compartments, each of which could be isolated from the adjoining compartment to maintain the integrity of the ship in the case of an emergency. If one part of the ship started taking on water, special doors would be locked into place so that the leak would be contained.  In reality, the design was tragically flawed.  On April 14, 1912, with little warning, the Titanic hit an iceberg.  Within 10 minutes of the collision, five forward compartments were flooded to a depth of 14 feet.  The water knew no boundaries. Within 25 minutes after the collision, it became apparent that the “unsinkable” was, in fact, very sinkable.

How do we relate to this luxury ocean liner? Far too often, we attempt to compartmentalize our lives.  We segment our lives into categories:  work, family, personal, spiritual, in a vain attempt to isolate one part from another.  (i.e., "I don't have to act like Christ because I'm at work, not church!)  Like water spilling over and under and around the doors on the Titanic until the entire ship fills, like yeast spreading throughout the whole loaf of bread until every part of the dough rises, Christ should permeate our entire being … our work life, our family life, our personal life, our spiritual life ... until we are completely saturated with His Spirit. (He does this to make us "rise", not sink, by the way!) God desires to rule in every aspect of our being. We cannot afford to compartmentalize our lives, picking and choosing which facets we will avail to the Savior.  We are not meant to parcel out our lives.   God doesn’t want a “share”, even His “share” … He wants all of us!