Isn’t it strange that some people will needlessly place themselves in harm’s way merely for the sake of an adrenaline rush? To be honest, I find this a lot stranger at age 66 than I did at 16. As a young man, I often acted as though I were invincible. Fortunately, due to a few hard knocks, and a bit of maturity gained as a result of them, I’ve come to realize that tights, a cape, and an “S” emblazoned on my chest, really isn’t my strong suit. A “Man of Steel” I am not. And yet, there are those who live just to push the envelop of safety and sanity. Often, such foolhardiness ends badly. Allow me to illustrate with a true story:
In 1969, in Pass Christian, Mississippi, a group of people were preparing to have a “hurricane party” in the face of a storm named Camille. Were they ignorant of the dangers? Could they have been overconfident? Did they let their egos and pride influence their decision? We’ll never know.
What we do know is that the wind was howling outside the posh Richelieu Apartments when Police Chief Jerry Peralta pulled up sometime after dark. Facing the beach less than 250 feet from the surf, the apartments were directly in the line of danger. A man with a drink in his hand came out to the second-floor balcony and waved. Peralta yelled up, “You all need to clear out of here as quickly as you can. The storm’s getting worse.” But as others joined the man on the balcony, they just laughed at Peralta’s order to leave. “This is my land,” one of them yelled back. “If you want me off, you’ll have to arrest me.”
Peralta didn’t arrest anyone, but he wasn’t able to persuade them to leave either. He wrote down the names of the next of kin of the twenty or so people who gathered there to party through the storm. They laughed as he took their names. They had been warned, but they had no intention of leaving.
It was 10:15 p.m. when the front wall of the storm came ashore. Scientists clocked Camille’s wind speed at more than 205 miles-per-hour, the strongest on record. Raindrops hit with the force of bullets, and waves off the Gulf Coast crested between twenty-two and twenty-eight feet high.
News reports later showed that the worst damage came at the little settlement of motels, go-go bars, and gambling houses known as Pass Christian, Mississippi, where some twenty people were killed at a hurricane party in the Richelieu Apartments. Nothing was left of that three-story structure but the foundation; the only survivor was a five-year-old boy found clinging to a mattress the following day. 1
If you think the loss of life in this situation was a bit meaningless, I’d have to agree with you. Why were these people so quick to gamble with their safety, and so willing to pit their human frailty against Camille’s ferocity? They wagered their earthly lives on a prideful whim, and lost.
However, what’s even worse than gambling with one’s earthly life is gambling with eternal life. God’s Word tells us, “…he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent” (2 Pet. 3:9b—NLT). But while salvation is offered freely to those who put their faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work on Calvary, one must be willing to turn from their sin and turn to Jesus in full commitment to Him as the Lord of their life. Through the prophet Ezekiel, God once said, “As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live. Turn! Turn from your wickedness, O people of Israel! Why should you die?” (Ezek. 33:11—NLT). Rather than dying in sin, God says there is an alternative; that being, “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isa. 55:6-7—KJV).
A divine storm is coming in which God will judge sin and the sinner who has rejected God’s Son. Jesus Christ is the only Shelter from that storm, for God’s Word tells us, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16—KJV). John went on to say, “And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment” (John 3:36—NLT).
Dear friend, do you know Christ as your personal Savior? Ask Him to forgive you of your sins, and then tell Him that you want Him to be your Lord and Savior. Invite Him into your heart. “For why will ye die?” (Ezek. 33:11c—KJV).
1Christian Values Qs Quarterly, Spring/Summer 1994, p.10
