Elim Adventist Church

Not in a Second of a Second!

In the 1930s, France operated a prison system where many citizens were tried summarily and sentenced to hard labour prisons and shipped off to prisons in French Guyana, a small French colony in South America. Among the convicts of this legal system was a certain 25 year old Henri Charrière, a man described as an expert jewelry thief, and, according to some, a pimp (a pimp trafficks women and girls to engage in prostitution) in Paris when he was arrested and convicted in 1931 of murdering a gangster-pimp. Charrière maintained his innocence but was sentenced nevertheless.

In the 1930s, France operated a prison system where many citizens were tried summarily and sentenced to hard labour prisons and shipped off to prisons in French Guyana, a small French colony in South America. Among the convicts of this legal system was a certain 25 year old Henri Charrière, a man described as an expert jewelry thief, and, according to some, a pimp (a pimp trafficks women and girls to engage in prostitution) in Paris when he was arrested and convicted in 1931 of murdering a gangster-pimp. Charrière maintained his innocence but was sentenced nevertheless.

While in the notorious prison, Charrière had determined to go back to his home country of France and continue his care-free life. In November 1933, he made his first escape in an open boat about 1,800 miles (2,900 km) away from the prison where he lived with some jungle Indians before being apprehended and shipped to Devil's Island. After several attempts to break jail using his strength, he realized that his strength had become his prison.

When he finally made his last ditch attempt after eight unsuccessful attempts to leave the prison, he was not going to use his usual strength but this time, it was about leaving his fate to the waves of the ocean to sail him to safe land. At the Devil Island prison, one could hear the clapping and glory of the sea waves. Enlisting the help of a friend, Charrière managed to improvise a raft made of dried coconut husk. He laid on this raft and left it all to the sea waves to carry him to safety in Venezuela.

This story illustrates the vanity of our efforts when all we can do is rely on our own strength. In the life of Jesus, we recognized this tendency in Peter. Matthew 14.22-33 tells the story of a certain “Disciple Peter” with the bravado to believe that in his own strength he could walk on the water to see Jesus. It is interesting to note that while Peter showed early signs of success in his water-walk experiment, he was only able to while he looked to Jesus. As success beckoned him with his too-good-to-be-true defiance of the laws of physics by walking on the Tempestuous Sea, Peter takes on himself the title of Sea Conqueror by allowing his eyes to steer away from the Creator and Tamer of the all-powerful sea. Once Peter agrees to let his attention simmer for just a second of a second, he begins another journey; a journey into the abyss, he was a sure meal for the inhabitants of the sea. Peter might never have had a need for his nets nor his bravado had the Creater and Tamer of the Sea not reached out His Long Arm of Salvation to rescue His chief disciple.

Like the coconut raft that had taken the surrender of Henri Charrière to task by leading him away from certain obliteration in the prison at Devil’s Island, Christ is always a Stretch of an Arm away. But He needs us to look at Him, and constantly! Taking our eyes off Jesus for even a second of a second is a sure way to the hopelessness, deceit, and conceit of our human strength.

Social media, smart phones, betting, gambling, night clubbing, Saturday football, alcohol, (wo)manising, or any vice shall NOT be enough to draw our eyes from Christ for even a second of a second!

Never take your eyes off Christ even for a second of a second!