In the same boat

Rev. Bob Wilkins delivered the sermon today at our Covenant Council meeting. He opened with a "rowboat" story. It seems that there was a flood in a particular town. Three men survived the flood waters by sharing a rowboat. As they were floating through the waters, the man in the backseat pulled out a manual drill and began drilling a hole in the bottom of the boat. "What are you doing?" yelled the man in the middle of the boat.

"What do you care," said the drilling man. "The hole's not under your seat."

We are connected. What we do affects other people.

I was reading the story of David and Bathsheba for Disciple today. Don't you love to read something and see things that you have never seen before? That happened several times for me today.

For the first time, I noticed Joab's message to David about the battle. David had ordered Joab to send Urriah to the front lines to be killed. Joab did as David had ordered, but it meant that other members of the army were killed as well. Our sins have consequences; sometimes, because of our connectedness -- because we are in the same boat, our sins have consequences for OTHER people besides ourselves.

Image: Lake at Cedar Lakes; fog rising