(April 08, 2024) Robert McQuillan shares…
Last month’s news about Australian billionaire Clive Palmer refloating his dream to build a replica of the Titanic caught my attention.
His company, the Blue Star Line, intends the replica – Titanic II – to set sail in June 2027, the billionaire claiming that this ship would be ‘far, far superior to the original.’
Although the replica will have four funnels as had the original, this 21st century ship will be powered by a diesel engine. Modernisations will include upgrades to navigation technology and modern safety procedures – including sufficient lifeboats!
Recalling
My mind immediately recalled a little romantic 19th century novella. It’s by Morgan Robertson and I found myself digging it out to reread. Originally called Futility, it was renamed The Wreck of the Titan.
Published in 1898, it centres on ‘the largest craft afloat… unsinkable, indestructible she carried as few boats as would satisfy the laws’ speeding along at 25knots. Chapter six tells of an unexpected shout from the crow’s nest lookout splitting the air – ‘Ice. Ice ahead. Iceberg. Right under the bows’ – and has the captain springing to the engine room telegraph to change direction.
But in five seconds there is the deafening sound of starboard side steel scraping and crashing over ice. The music in the theatre stops amid screaming and shouting. It is the beginning of the death of the Titan… and the loss of more than half of the 2500 passengers…
That April night the ‘invincible’ Titan is sunk by an iceberg in the north Atlantic – fourteen years before the greatest civil maritime disaster of all time – its fictional doom eerily prefiguring the actual calamity of the 20th century’s ‘unsinkable’ White Star Line luxury liner, RMS Titanic, also encountering an iceberg on its starboard side while hurrying at 22½knots!
Author Robertson repeatedly refused to be called a clairvoyant!
Remembrance
April 14 is a day that is well remembered, indeed one that has gone down in history! No doubt news channels will be reminding us that Sunday coming is 112 years since the Titanic smashed into an iceberg just before midnight, sinking a mere few hours later April 15!
White Star’s catastrophe is generally reported as the massive liner striking the iceberg at 11.39pm… and three hours, one minute later at 2.40am Monday morning the so-called unsinkable, luxury liner was gone – in what had been the calmest but coldest seas (28 degrees under). Only about 700 individuals were rescued from the frigid sea. Sadly, some 1500 perished.
Many have been alleged as claiming that even God couldn’t sink Titanic… White Star chairman Bruce Ismay, Captain John Smith, chief designer Thomas Andrews, a crewman, a shipyard worker, quayside observers. One survivor, in his memoirs, told that while passengers didn’t mention God, they had said that they believed the liner to be unsinkable.
It was indeed a dark iceberg experience! Walter Lord‘s prolific 1955 book and subsequent 1958 movie called it, A Night to Remember.
Recoiling
Such nights are dark nights! Have you had a troublesome night that has you recoiling? Maybe it wasn’t ‘a Titanic night’ but some sort of heavy catastrophe, some explosive disaster that’s given you a sinking feeling. To use that old expression… you feel you’re sunk! That everything is lost. That your ‘iceberg encounter’ whatever it is has you adrift in some kind of freezing ocean with no hope of survival!
Unfortunately disasters happen – as recent TV news reports about earthquakes in eastern America and Taiwan! The reality is that unexpected ‘things’ happen or go wrong in life, even effecting Christians!
But the good news is that we Christians have a caring friend in our heavenly Father God who can bring us through every disaster, every dark night or day – and move us onward into a bright tomorrow!
Rejoicing
Scripture holds many promises telling about the Lord our God who cares us for those who trust Him, for example –
- Nehemiah 8:10b
‘Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.’ - Joshua 1:9
‘… Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.’ - Psalm 32:7-8
‘You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble…’ - Psalm 46:1-2
‘God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.’ - Psalm 91:2
‘I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”’’ - Isaiah 43:2
‘When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. - Nahum 1:7
‘The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him.’ - John 16:33
‘I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’ - 2Corinthians 4:8-9
‘We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.’ - 2Thessalonians 3:16
‘Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.’
I particularly love Jesus’ John 14:15-17Mge promise, ‘If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and He’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth.’
I can attest that this blessed friend is to Christians today as Jesus was to His disciples – He will always be there to guide and direct no matter what sinking situation you may be in! He is the paraklētos – the one called alongside, intercessor, comforter, advocate, consoler.
What a comfort in this time of dark nights, dark days, dark problems! We can hand every ‘iceberg’ situation over to Him and He will bring us through!
Recollections
Now I’m aware that some poor reader(s) may think ‘That’s easy for you to say! You’re not going through what I’m suffering!’
No, I’m probably not… but I won’t belittle any Titanic type disasters or anyone that’s involved in such! However, I have encountered calamities in my lifetime that could have damaged me greatly, taking my life, ruining my future. So I can say that I know deep within that God cares for those who know Him, seek to follow and honour Him.
Some ‘little’ dark catastrophes that had me feeling sunk, but God brought me through: That –
(i) Dark night decades ago when I was young
I’d borrowed a friend’s new car to drive home from a country town in Northern Ireland – a larger ‘heavier’ car than any I’d driven before. As I turned a sharp bend on a major mountain pass (the Glenshane Pass), I hit unexpected ice on the road and the vehicle uncontrollably skidded off the mountainside into the air! No seat belts or power steering back then and over and over went the car and I couldn’t do anything… except cry ‘Lord, help…!’
Suddenly I felt ‘someone’ mysteriously push me over onto the left side of the ‘bench’ seating away from the steering wheel. Finally the car righted itself, its heavy weight sinking into the ground with a thud! I could have been helplessly slammed against that heavy wheel as the car plunged head downwards, but I wasn’t. As I scrambled upright I noticed something worse – the damaged roof above where I had been sitting upright… caused by a huge ground rock that the spinning vehicle had struck on turning, assessors said. I felt horrified but was all right, only badly shaken! Explain it? I can’t… I can only say thank you, my special friend!
(ii) Near death experience
Again I was heading over an edge… this time on my back skidding fast down a steep slippery rockface to certain doom a long way below!
Not a north Atlantic experience but definitely a sinking feeling one! Thank you, Holy Spirit, that somehow I mysteriously suddenly halted at the very brink and was able to creep away to safety! (See HEEEEELP, HOLY SPIRIT! | Connecting with You!).
(iii) Unexpected electric shock
Delivering a washing machine when I was in sales (also decades ago), I switched it on to demonstrate it – but on touching the machine I received a terrifying electric shock! Shaking I somehow I fell backward from the dangerously wired machine and the petrified lady helped me to a comforting settee!
Now I didn’t even have time to cry out to God… but first thing every morning, Maureen and I commit the new day to the Lord. When we do so many times He keeps us safe… or brings us through troubling experiences as we trust Him.
Realities
I know, personally from years of other experiences, that life isn’t over when some tragedy raises its ugly head… we may still have to work through some things. But God will reach out to you if you turn your dark night over to Him and ask for His help!
As well as handing such times over the Lord for His help, I make a conscious decision that I’m moving on. After all, why should I dwell on, and live in, the past? That’s where the darkness is and I am not going to dwell there. I prefer every new God-given day and choose to live there enjoying them all and letting Him direct and use me for the kingdom’s sake.
The real secret is to focus on Jesus and what He has for our lives. What I call Paul’s 3P focuses:
1) Power!
Focus on Jesus’ inner power! (2 Corinthians 4:7-8,16-18).
2) Prayer!
Focus on the Spirit’s intercession for us! (Romans 8:26-28).
3) Persuasion!
Focus on God’s love! (Romans 8:37-39).
Those recoiling ‘dark times experiences’? Knowing and trusting God through acceptance of Jesus as Saviour and reading His word will strengthen you… you’ll come through them, and you’ll be on top to help others find their way away from their dark night experiences.
Refloating
This article now brings us from disasters and darknesses to dreams!
Clive Palmer mentioned refloating, activating, his dream. If God gives us a ‘floatable dream, it’s a call to action. Scripture tells that many times God spoke to biblical characters in dreams: here’s just a few –
- Genesis 37:5
‘Joseph had a dream…’ (Remember how it outworked, despite every rejective dark experience it cost the young man?) - Joel 2:28
‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.’ - Matthew 1:20
‘… an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife…”’ - Acts 2:17
‘God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.’ - Acts 18:9
‘One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent.”’
Has God spoken to you in a dream? Something that you haven’t floated? Are you willing to float it… now, not in 2027 or 2030? For that matter, do you know the God of heavenly dreams?
We’ve just celebrated Easter, that ‘God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16). Still troubled? Accept Jesus as Saviour and hand those dark times over to Him.
Restorative closing thoughts – God has an expiry date on those recoiling dark ‘iceberg’ nights! Seek it!
And seek Him. Move on. Not burying whatever dream God has given you… young Joseph didn’t! (See also Pastor on Titanic Made one Last Convert)
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Dr Robert McQuillan’s links are OnlinerConnect@gmail.com and Facebook
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Connecting with You! 
Living in Northern Ireland, in Belfast, we have a visitor centre named ‘Titanic‘ which attracts many visitors from across the world. I agree, Robert, as your shared personal stories tell us, we never know when we might ‘hit an iceberg.’ How good it is to know daily that we can entrust ourselves to a God who cares about the details of our lives and can bring us through troubling ‘iceberg’ experiences.