In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew embarked on a cross-continental voyage across Antarctica. The journey was cut short when his vessel, the Endurance, was stopped by the ice and eventually crushed by an ice pack.
The men set up a winter camp on the ice, adjacent to the wreckage, hoping they could drift eventually to warmer waters. They remained on the ice for several months before pulling their gear in lifeboats across the ice to reach sailable waters. Eventually the crew set sail and spent five days at sea, traveling 346 miles in lifeboats to Elephant Island.
Elephant Island, it turned out, was an uninhabitable land. It soon became clear that Shackleton and his men would need set out on the open seas once again in search of a whaling station. Shackleton and several other men launched from Elephant Island on a 800-mile journey to South Georgia Island. They spent 15 days on some of the most treacherous waters imaginable.
But even this was not the end of the journey.
When they reached South Georgia Island, bad weather forced them to dock on the southern end of the island; the whaling station was on the northern side. The men spent the next 32 hours traversing snowy, mountainous terrain until at last they reached the whaling station.
Shackleton then spent the next four months trying to get a water vessel that could make the return trip to Elephant Island. He eventually succeeded, and safely returned all crew members from the original Endurance voyage. Not a single man perished!
On this Easter Weekend, I am reminded of what Jesus does for us. He went through hell for us so that we might cross to the other side. He did not abandon us in an uninhabitable place but returned to deliver all those who were called on this voyage of faith and discipleship.
It often seems that the seas are uncrossable. Hope seems gone, and then, in the distance, we see Him coming back to rescue us and take us home.
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