One of the most riveting books I’ve ever read is Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm. His true story of a fishing boat caught in a massive storm kept me awake several nights in a row. The sheer power of the sea and wind defied anything I knew. Even floating in a swimming pool felt dangerous for a time.

The apostle Paul lived through his own disaster at sea, involving days of peril and ending in the loss of the entire ship and its contents.

Earlier in the voyage Paul warned against continuing to sail so late in the season. But the men in charge (Paul was only a prisoner on board) decided to press on. Luke records the decision: The centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship…the majority decided we should sail on.

Most disasters start with a bad decision. Which is followed by another bad decision, and the subsequent cascading actions prove harder and harder to overcome. Paul’s ship might have harbored earlier along the route to Rome, but profit and desire pushed the crew forward.

How many times have I made snap decisions when the wiser choice would have been to pause? Some decisions call for immediate action. But others benefit from waiting for better circumstances. Wisdom involves discerning the difference.

The captain and owner of the doomed ship both survived the shipwreck. I hope the wisdom gained from this catastrophe helped them avoid the next.

We all deal with the fallout from poor decisions, but the ability to learn from our mistakes yields the depth and maturity and wisdom needed as we go through life.

Acts 27 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by Yevhen Buzuk