Understanding the Lostness People Around Us

When she was 13 years old, Rebecca Bazell was lost at sea (cf. WSJ, August 27, 2013).

For 4 days and 3 nights.  1982.  During a vacation near Grand Caymen, her family set out late one afternoon to return a small, rented, uncovered aluminum rowboat.  Five miles offshore, the engine suddenly quit, and they soon realized that the boat itself had little to offer them -- no spare tank of gas, no oars.  A forceful tide was taking them away from the shoreline.  Dad put on his snorkel gear and attempted to swim ashore for help.

In the boat were Rebecca, her stepmother, and her brother.  They drifted off into the night.

Rebecca describes her physical and mental experience of lostness.  There were no dramatic emotions, but rather a shutting down of her body which was deprived of what it really needed.  Day two, she was "more peaceful."  By day three, "I'd begun to see myself the same as plankton--just existing until I didn't.  I never consciously stopped wanting to live, but I ran out of energy to care."

The small boat would be seen by the crew of a far-away tanker on the fourth day, and the diminished family was hauled aboard and cared for.  They had drifted 50 miles.  They were also shocked that "we had been missed."  The Coast Guard and hundreds of volunteers had been looking for them for 96 hours.

Rebecca (now 44 years old) imagines what it would be like to meet other survivors of times being lost at sea.  "I wonder if any of them share my sense of dread when (present day) search efforts (in earthquakes, accidents, or war zones) are called off....I have a sense that there are people who are miraculously still alive, just waiting to be found."

This brief recollection has the power to stir us, and it should.  Her descriptions help us understand the  feelings of those who are spiritually lost at life.   The sense of just drifting with no particular direction.  The loss of purpose.  Peaceful, resigned, just existing until you don't.  No energy to care if I live or die.  Licking the bottom of the boat for water from a brief rain shower.

As those who have found rescue and life in Jesus Christ -- the only true source of life -- we should read things like this.   Let it lead to NOT calling off your search effort for those who are drifting through life and lost in the swells of it.

One night, a bunch of sea veterans found themselves lost and out of control.  To their surprise, Jesus came to them and brought peace.  Keep your eyes peeled on the sea around you.  You may see a boat with a few who long to be rescued.