FAITH: Live so that they will listen

I have long enjoyed the historical writing of David McCullough. At the moment I am reading his first book, The Johnstown Flood, an event I was unfamiliar with, but which was, in the words of the subtitle, “one of the most devastating disasters America has ever known.” 

In his inimitable style, McCullough chronicles the devastation which followed when in 1889 a dam in Pennsylvania gave way sending an enormous flood of water cascading along a river and carrying with it towns and villages, sweeping away buildings, cattle, locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars, and people. More than 2,000 people died, many with no warning. It is a sad tale.

One particular scene especially grabbed me. As the dam was just beginning to give way, some people tried earnestly to send a warning to the people downriver. A man brought the message into the telegraph station. However, people had talked for a long time about the dam breaking one day, and people really never thought it would. 

So, when a man burst into the telegraph station saying the dam had given way, the lady working the station needed to make sure he was telling the truth. 

She stated later, "He is a man that people generally don't have much confidence in, and for that reason, I scarcely knew what to do under the circumstances." 

Death is barreling its way to thousands of people, but the warning is delayed because the messenger is a man whose behavior and manner of life make people unsure whether or not they can trust what he says.

Can you see the parallel? Judgement and destruction are coming in the ultimate sense. There is coming a “day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” as all our sins deserve (Romans 2:5). But God, being rich in mercy, has made a way of rescue and calls on all people everywhere to repent of their sins and trust in Jesus. We have been sent with that message. 

But, people tend to discount the reality of this coming judgement. They can’t see it with their eyes and people have talked about this for years. In that situation, we must not be people whose lives give others reason to doubt the message we bring. 

Our lives cannot invalidate the message, but the way we live can keep people from taking us seriously about such serious matters. Eternity is at stake. Let us live so that others might listen.

Dr. Ray Van Neste is the Dean of the School of Theology & Missions at Union University along with serving as the vice-president of University Ministries. Reach him at rvannest@uu.edu.