I started this day with prayer and I am sure it will also end that way. The aroma of a pot of Door County Bourbon Pecan Pie Coffee has filled the room where I sit. Prayer, coffee and quiet. It doesn't get much better than that.
Yesterday while visiting Door County with our friends we decided to do the tourist thing and and actually take a tour that was pretty much filled with a lot of historical facts. But as with every history tour some of the history you hear always contains a tragedy or two. Door County is basically surrounded by one of the Great Lakes. Lake Michigan to me is pretty much a small ocean. It has been known to get quite rough on the water and has swallowed many ships throughout history. Boat travel was very common and the best way of transportation when Door County was settled back in the day.
Our tour guide told us about a steamship that was used as a ferry. Later in the early 1900s it was converted to haul supplies as well as people to and from ports on Lake Michigan. The life of the ferry was pretty mundane and it hauled people as well as cargo for quite a few years without any incidents.
That was until the last trip the ferry ever made. It was on a night when Lake Michigan was howling and the swells of the waves were very threatening. It was quoted that the weather on Lake Michigan was like a tornado on the water. The captain of the ship made the decision to not leave the port the ferry was snuggled in because of the weather. The passengers lobbied ( we assume very passionately) with the captain and insisted that he take them home without a weather delay.
Now the captain had sailed the unforgiving lake for many years and his advice was to wait the storm out. But he eventually succumbed to their whining. He up until this point had survived performing his trade. The boat ended up taking on too much water in the storm and it sank.. There were a few survivors of that fateful night but the majority of the passengers drowned never to see home again.
Our tour led us to a cemetery for more historical facts and the tombs of a few of those impatient people were housed there in their final resting place. Seeing the evidence of the early deaths was sad for me. There was solid advice given through years of knowledge and experience. Because of the impatience of people, their fate was terrible. The rest of history was impacted by not following good advice from someone who knew what the danger was. The captain who knew the danger also gave into not wanting to deal correctly with the passengers. I believe he chose popularity over doing the right thing by keeping his ship in port.
We have two fatal mistakes here. People who wouldn't follow solid advice given. And one who wouldn't stand his ground for the right thing. God has something to say in His Word about both.
Proverbs 12:15 English Standard Version (ESV)
15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,
but a wise man listens to advice.
God gave the folks an experienced leader who knew what to do. Yet they decided to tell him how to navigate wild waters. It did not work out too well for them. They were fools. Do you seek sound advice and then not follow it? An example would be to go to a physician and find out that an aspirin a day would be well advised for your health and then not take the aspirin. God gave you an educated physician and then you don't follow the advice? Or you see the sign that says to slow down at the next curve and yet you speed through it just to find yourself in a twisted mass of metal that used to be your car. You are the fool God speaks of in Proverb 12:15.
Now we have the captain, who knew better but went ahead and it killed most of his crew and passengers. He suffered the consequences of his decision and it gave him a watery death and a history lesson to the rest of us. God educated him and gave him a skill, yet he abandoned his training. He knew better than his passengers what the risk was.
James 4:17 English Standard Version (ESV)
17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
2 Chronicles 15:7 English Standard Version (ESV)
7 But you, take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded.”
Advice given. Advice not taken. Are you the fool who knows everything?
Marty
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