Carnival cruise ship Triumph

"Triumph at Last"

The Carnival cruise ship Triumph finally docked last night in Mobile, AL, after 5 days at sea without power due to an engine room fire. Passengers cheered as they got off the ship, completing a cruise that was designed to be both fun and relaxing but instead was marked by overflowing toilets, food shortages and foul odors.

The cruise began last Thursday from Galveston, Texas. It was scheduled to last until Monday, February 11, after sailing four days with stops at various vacation spots in the Gulf of Mexico. But on Sunday, February 10, a fire erupted in the engine room causing the ship to be stalled some 150 miles off Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. Towboats pulled the ship through the Gulf to Mobile. When the ship was brought to Mobile Bay, it still took six grueling hours and at least four towboats to navigate the 900 ft. vessel through the 30-odd-mile ship channel to dock.

"It was horrible, just horrible" said Maria Hernandez, 28, of Angleton, Texas, tears welling in her eyes as she talked about waking up to smoke in her lower-level room Sunday and the days of heat and stench to follow. She went on the cruise for a "girls trip" with friends. She said the group hauled mattresses to upper-level decks to escape the heat. "I just can't wait to be home," she said.

That reminds us: the cruise ship was not built to be "home" for anyone. It was designed to carry passengers on a temporary trip - hopefully, a pleasurable trip! Even though this trip turned out to be a disaster, passengers and crew could find - and are now enjoying - relief from the fact that the cruise ship was never intended to be their "home."

The same can be said of the world in which we live. God created the world to be inhabited, but not forever....

He designed it to sustain our lives for a period of time, but neither the world nor our physical bodies were made to last forever. He didn't create this world to be our eternal "home." He has something far better - eternal and "heavenly" - in mind (see John 14:1-6; Revelation 21).

"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life - is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:15-17).

One day "both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up" (2 Peter 3:10).

But God "so loved the world [i.e., the people in it], that He gave His only Son [Jesus], that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16).

Our sin condemns us to a fate much worse than "a bad ride on a cruise ship" (see Matthew 7:13-14). But thanks be to God that because of Jesus we can be forgiven of our sins and receive the gift of eternal life to be enjoyed in our heavenly home!

God will forgive and give eternal life to those who: will place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and be baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). He will continue to "cleanse" and make ready for Heaven, those who continue to follow His Word as a way of life (1 John 1:7).

Around 4,200 passengers and crew members are relieved that the Triumph finally made it back to shore.

"But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory" - the real TRIUMPH over sin and death - "through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:57).

Won't YOU submit your life to Jesus so that you can share in His triumphant victory?

David Sargent