Photo by Daniel Venturo
This is a sextant, a tool used for navigation
Crash! Another monster wave loomed towering over the boat, then hurtled down and swept over it, engulfing it in ice cold seawater. Then another rose up under it, lifting it high into the black sky and flinging it down again into the depths below, where it was only buffeted again from the side by yet another furious wave.
The year was 1916. The tiny boat and the 5 men on board were in the most treacherous waters in all the world—Drake Passage. They were trying to get to a small island off the coast of South America called South Georgia Island. If they could not make it to land soon, the boat, and everyone in it would be lost, swallowed up by the raging ocean. Could they make it?
In the early 1900s, people all over the world were extremely interested in Polar Exploration. This means everyone wanted to explore Antarctica and the Arctic. There were many expeditions to these icy white wildernesses, especially as people tried to find the North and South Poles.
Sir Ernest Shackleton was the leader of one of these expeditions. He wanted to cross the entire continent of Antarctica. But unfortunately for the expedition, Shackleton and his men never made it to Antarctica. His ship, named the Endurance, got stuck in the ice that is always on the water around Antarctica! The Endurance could not break through the thick ice. Shackleton and his men were completely trapped!
Over time, the strong ice floes that surrounded the ship began to press against her sides harder and harder. They were slowly crushing her!
Shackleton and his men got safely off the ship. They set up camp on the ice. Before long, the crushing ice was too much for the Endurance. The ship sank down to the bottom of the Antarctic sea, and the ice closed solidly over the place once more.
Now Shackleton and his men were all alone on the ice without a ship. But they did have three small lifeboats which they were able to save from the sinking ship. In these tiny boats, Shackleton decided to try for a daring escape. He and four other men chose one of the boats. In this boat, they would cross the terrifying Drake Passage to South Georgia Island. There were people living on this island who could help. If Shackleton could reach this island, he could get a new ship and go to rescue the men who were left behind.
Artwork by Daniel Venturo
Here is a map of Shackleton's voyage to South Georgia Island. (The lifeboat was named the James Caird). See how bad it would be if Shackleton missed the island!
It was a terrible journey. Giant waves cruelly tossed the small lifeboat. Many crashed over the side and filled the boat with cold water. Some of this water would freeze onto the boat, making it too heavy. The men had to take turns balancing on the wildly pitching, icy deck while being consistently splashed with freezing spray from the waves, and chip the ice off. Otherwise, the over-loaded boat would sink.
To make matters worse, Shackleton and his men wondered anxiously if they would miss the island altogether. You see, South Georgia Island is a speck on a wide expanse of ocean. If Shackleton and his men missed the tiny island, there would not be more land for a long time. Too much time. There was not enough food or water to last that amount of time.
So whenever possible, the man in charge of navigation got out his charts and a special kind of tool used for navigating called a sextant. There is a picture of a sextant at the top of this article. Back before devices like GPS were invented, people used tools like sextants on ships to find their way. Holding the sextant up to the horizon, an explorer could use the sun and some complicated math to figure out where he was on the map. This information could save his life.
Now I’m going to tell you what information can save your life! Do you remember in my last article when I wrote about the armor of God? I told you that God gives Christians special armor, not for their bodies, but for their souls, to protect them from sin and the devil. Well, the first piece of armor God tells us about is called the belt of truth (Eph. 6:14a). We are to have the truth around our waists, with us always. This means we need to protect our hearts and minds from the lies of this world and listen to the truth of God’s Word. There are many things that people on TV or at your school say are alright or even good that the Bible says are wrong! Instead of listening to TV and your teachers, read what the Bible says and believe the truth that is there. Your enemy, the devil, wants to get you to believe you can listen to the world as well as to God’s Word. And many things the world says sound similar to what the Bible says. Many things the world says sound good and right. But the devil is tricky. He wants to trick you into thinking that what the world says is the same as what God says.
But don’t let him trap you! The Bible is always good and right, because God is good, and He wrote the Bible. Everything He says is true and good. (See 1 Jn. 2:21; Prov. 30:5-6).
One of the lies the world tells us is that people can come to God any way they like. It says that all religions and beliefs are right and people can choose whichever they want. People can do whatever they like without any punishments.
But the Bible says something quite different. The Bible says that Jesus is the only right way to God. John 14:6 says, “I [Jesus] am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father [God] except through Me.” And according to Acts 4:12, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Think for a moment about what would have happened if Shackleton believed that all directions were right, that he could choose any of them, and that he didn’t have to look at the sextant. He would have missed South Georgia, and he and his men would have died.
In the same way, if we do not read the Bible to find the right way to God, we will miss Heaven altogether and end up in Hell. This is because God is holy and must punish those who disobey His Law. All people have disobeyed His Law. But Jesus, God as a man, came to earth to die on a cross and take the punishment of those who have disobeyed Him. He was punished instead of you! He was buried but came alive again, destroying death! Because He destroyed death, Jesus can give life to you if you ask Him to forgive your sins and clean them away from you. You must trust Him to do this and stop sinning. He will help you do this. Instead of dying and going to Hell, you can trust in Jesus and go to Heaven to live with Him forever after you die! (Mat. 5:48; 1 Pet. 1:15-16; Gal. 3:10; Rev. 20:13-15; Rom. 3:23; Jn. 1:1,14; Rom. 5:8; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Cor. 15:3-4, 26; Jn. 3:16; Acts 3:19; Acts 16:31; 1 Jn. 5:18; Jn. 3:36).
Jesus is the Truth! He is the only way to have life! So choose life! (See Deut. 30:19-20).
But I’m sure you want to know what happened to Shackleton and the other four men in the tiny boat in Drake Passage. Against all odds, they made it to the island! There Shackleton found another ship, which he took back to rescue the men that were waiting for him back in Antarctica!
Shackleton’s sextant kept him on course and saved his life. Just like that sextant, the Truth will keep you on course and save you from Hell. So always hold onto the Truth. Your belt of Truth will keep you on course!
Information from: Lansing, Alfred. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Used by permission. All rights reserved.