Have you ever felt that God was with you, somehow present with you when going through a time of adversity? Have you ever felt that God was so present with you that it felt like another person was sharing the same space as you?
Recently I read the following story of Sir Ernest Shakleton and his daring expedition to cross the Antarctic.
In December of 1914, Shackleton and his 27-member crew aboard the ship Endurance entered the ice fields of Weddell Sea, navigating through dangerous pack ice. With only 100 miles left in the journey, Shackleton made the fateful decision to stop and wait for a break in the heavy ice. The temperature dropped and the ice closed in around the ship making it impossible to proceed. The crew would live aboard the ship for the next ten months.
Gradually the ship succumbed to the crushing grip of the ice. Shackleton gave the order to abandon ship. The crew began a march in search of safety, carrying minimal supplies and dragging three lifeboats. Eventually reaching open water, they boarded the lifeboats and sailed off in an attempt to find land. Surviving perilous conditions, they finally landed on the deserted Elephant Island.
Stranded on the island, with no hope of rescue, Shackleton and four other crew members set sail in a lifeboat in an effort to reach the island of South Georgia. Traveling 800 miles through the world’s worst seas, they arrived only to discover the whaling station was on the other side of the island. In order to rescue the remaining crew in time, Shackleton and two of his men must cross on foot the treacherous cliffs of the island, which were icy and forbidding, vulnerable to sudden blizzards and hurricane winds. The island’s inhabitants considered the journey impossible. Nevertheless, Shackleton and his two partners crossed in 36 hours.
Shackleton’s diary provides an interesting perspective on the South Georgia Island crossing:” I know that during that long and racking march of 36 hours over the unnamed mountains of South Georgia, it seemed to me often that there were four, not three. I said nothing to my companions, but afterwards Worsley said to me, “Boss, I had a curious feeling that there was another person with us.”
This experience of Sir Ernest Shackleton reminds me of the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the Book of Daniel (chapter 3) who were thrown into the fiery furnace for refusing to bow down to a statue constructed by King Nebuchad-nezzar of Babylon. While they were in the furnace, they were not consumed by the flames, but instead were joined by a mysterious fourth person. Who was that person? Where did that person come from? Was it an angel? Was it a divine presence? Was it even a pre-existent Jesus? Speculation abounds.
I think one theme that we can glean from this text for our own lives is that when we are facing adversity, faith is believing that God is still there for us. Jesus was proclaimed as Emmanuel… “God is with us”. (Matthew 1:23) Jesus promised us and gave to us the Holy Spirit as his presence in us until his return. (John14:17) Not everyone has had the experience of a mysterious presence sharing the same space during tough times…but it is good to know that when we are going through adversity it is not just that we might get closer to God…but God has been and always will be close to us.
Pastor Ian McWhinnie