Swim or Build an Ark

Imagine for a moment that you are Noah. Of course you know Noah don’t you? Now I want you to imagine you are him and you are having this conversation where you hear that God wants you to build an Ark. Psst. Noah! Noah! Yes God. I want to tell you a secret. It is going to rain. It is going to rain? What is rain? Rain is water falling from the sky. But, water does not fall from the sky. I am about to change all of that. It is going to rain for 40 days and 40 nights and everyone and everything on the earth will be destroyed in a flood. You, Noah will be saved from destruction. You and your family and two of all the creatures on the earth will be saved. But, I need you to do something for me first. I need you to build an Ark. Oh, and by the way, that rain I was telling you about, it is not going to come for about 120 years.

Noah had a mission. He had a clear and compelling purpose. Noah was going to build an Ark, and save the remaining creatures of the earth. The problem is that Noah is the only person to “hear” his calling and the rain does not come for 120 years. Noah begins to build a giant boat on dry ground. What will the neighbors think? What do you tell your friends?

Each of us spends time wondering about our purpose. We wonder about our gifts and talents and we wish that we could live with passion and purpose. As we mature we find ourselves looking for our place in the world. We seek the answers to the deeper questions. What is the meaning of life? Why am I here? Who makes the best Latte? We consider ourselves seekers. We want to find our place and live to higher purposes. Or, we are like Jack Nicholson in “As Good as it gets,” and we “just want to be a better man.”

Our lives are a journey. We make choices. We go along the way and sometimes we find that we are lost. We seek direction, and if we are lucky, we find our way once again. We are on the right path. You are doing the right thing. You are successful, happy, and well recognized. You have it all. Still, the nagging questions come to you in the middle of the night. What would you do differently? If you had your life to live over again, would you do what you are doing? If money did not matter would you quit your job? Do you wake up in the morning knowing that you love what you do with your day? Do you make a difference?

Now comes the hard part. You have found your place. You need to make a choice. You believe that you should build an Ark. Do you follow your heart? You get a glimpse of your purpose. Do you pursue it? What if your purpose is to serve and you will never be rich? If you had to give up everything would you follow the course? What if only you believed in your calling? Would you abandon your gift?

We ask these questions with a sense that if we find our purpose we will be successful. When we discover our gifts we will be happy. If we could just do what we want to do then we could relax. I wonder….

Throughout history great men and women have heard the voice that defined their calling. They have suffered, lost inheritances, been sold into slavery, and some have died before they achieved the promise. They have been burned at the stake, beheaded, or jailed for many years. Some waited more than 100 years. Still, each of these people did not waver. They faced their fears and suffered adversity, yet they lived to fulfill their purpose.

If you were told to build an Ark in a world where it did not rain would you build it? If you were given a choice between death and denying your calling, would you deny it? If standing up to injustice would cost you a career, would you do it?

These are Questions. These are Choices. You only get one Chance.

We make many tough choices in our lives. We must answer questions that help us to define who we are. When you find the answer, then you get one chance to answer the call. We must choose wisely. When you find your calling, or your purpose you must act. When you hear the voice you must move. There will be doubts. There will be questions, and there will be risks. Still, the reward of living a life that fulfills a promise is a life that honors the higher calling. When we stop looking for success, we find an opportunity to achieve greatness.

There are many roadblocks along the way. There are setbacks. There are detours. And when we find our selves nearing victory, then we experience temptation. There is the temptation to quit. There is the temptation to change course. There is the temptation of the seemingly better deal. That is when we must keep sight of the goal. The fog of indecision can cloud the way. There is the story of a woman swimming the English Channel. After swimming for quite a while, she told her coaches that she could swim no further. They encouraged her to keep swimming. She swam a while longer, only to once again plead with her coach that she could swim no further. Again, they encouraged her to swim on. Finally, as the day wore on and the fog set in she could hardly see in front of her. Once again she pleaded with her coach. This time he gave in and pulled her into the boat. As the boat continued to move towards the shore the fog lifted. It was then that she realized that she had been only within a hundred yards of the shore. She was quoted later as saying “if only I could have seen the shore I would have made it.”

As we pursue our dreams the shore is not always in sight. Keep swimming. The shore is right in front of you. You can’t get there alone, but in order to reach the goal you just have to keep on swimming. Or maybe, you should start to build an Ark.