Thursday, 18 April 2013

How to Avoid the Titanic Mistake


I read this post from HTB / Nicky Gumble’s Bible In One Year program and thought I would share.


When the Titanic sailed in 1912, it was declared to be ‘unsinkable’ because it was using a new technology.  The ship’s hull was divided into sixteen watertight compartments.  Up to four of these compartments could be damaged or even flooded, and still the ship would float. 
The Titanic sank on 15 April 1912 at 2.20am.  1,513 people lost their lives.  At the time it was thought that five of its watertight compartments had been ruptured in a collision with an iceberg. 
However, when the intact wreck of the Titanic was found lying upright on the ocean floor, on 1 September 1985, there was no sign of the long gash previously thought to have been ripped in the ship’s hull by the iceberg.  Now scientists posit that the collision’s impact buckled or loosened the seams in the adjacent hull plate’s core, causing them to separate and allowing water to flood in – thus sinking the unsinkable ship.  What they discovered was that damage to one compartment affected all the rest. 
James Cameron, producer of the movie Titanic, says, ‘The Titanic is a metaphor of life.  We are all on the Titanic.’  One hole below the waterline will eventually sink the ship.
Many people make the Titanic mistake.  They think they can divide their lives into different ‘compartments’ and that what they do in one will not affect the rest.  The reality is that this is not the case.  As Rick Warren (from whom I have taken this illustration) says, ‘A life of integrity is one that is not divided into compartments.’
Jesus was described as a ‘man of integrity’ (Matthew 22:16; Mark 12:14).  David led the people with ‘integrity of heart’ (Psalm 78:72).  The writer of Chronicles says that God tests the ‘heart’ and is ‘pleased with integrity’ (1 Chronicles 29:17).
1.  Integrity in relationships
2.  Integrity with money
3.  Integrity of lifestyle

To read the rest of this passage in more detail, please go to: http://acs.alpha.org/bioy/commentary/478

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