Dare 2B Daring – August 14, 2013 A daily devotional published by Risk Takers for Christ, Inc. (Permission granted to reprint with proper attribution.) “If Columbus had turned back, nobody would have blamed him, but nobody would have remembered him either.” – Warren Wiersbe, quoting an anonymous history professor What makes a man climb aboard a small wooden ship and attempt to cross an expanse as wide as the Atlantic Ocean? Was Christopher Columbus motivated by greed, unbridled personal ambition…or perhaps by religious faith? More than five centuries later, historians still argue that point and I guess we’ll never know for sure. However, what we can be certain of is this – on the evening of August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus (Italian: Cristoforo Colombo; Spanish: Cristóbal Colón; Portuguese: Cristóvão Colombo) boarded a Spanish carrack and set sail for uncharted waters. His goal was to find a western passage to the East Indies, which he failed to do. Instead, his five-week voyage took Columbus and his crew to the Bahamas. At 2:00 AM on the morning of October 12th, Rodrigode Triana – a lookout on the Pinta – spotted land. And when the Nina (real name, the Santa Clara); the Pinta and the Santa Maria pulled into port later that same day, world history was changed forever. Columbus made three subsequent trips to the New World, exploring and mapping much of the Caribbean. He never did find the western route to the Orient that he had been seeking, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. And that, perhaps more than anything, is what Christopher Columbus should be best remembered for today. Because not only did he spend years trying to convince the monarchs of Portugal, England, Italy and Spain to authorize and finance his expeditions; but Columbus’s passion was so great that he was able to persuade crews of seasoned sailors to join him on four very dangerous missions. Kind of reminds me of a certain Galilean fisherman named Simon Peter, who before he summoned the courage to get out of the boat and walk on water, exhibited enough faith to follow a Jewish rabbi who made some radical claims about Himself. Which is why – 2,000 years later – we are still talking about him, too. “And as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. Then Jesus said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.’ They immediately left their nets and followed Him.” Mark 1:16-18 (NKJV) - Rev. Dale M. Glading, President risktakersforchrist.org
Posted on: Wed, 14 Aug 2013 02:45:43 +0000
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