Loose Cannons
“Keep the faith and maintain a good conscience. Some have rejected this and have suffered shipwreck regarding their faith.” 1 Timothy 1:19
Those who go to sea in ships always have a nagging fear of storms. No matter how large and well built a ship may be, passengers and crew are always aware of how fragile a thing it is as compared to the ocean. No ship is unsinkable. Remember the Titanic!
I could give you a little nautical advice – commonly stated and known by all true sailors. In most circumstances it is good to have a gentle breeze or prevailing wind at your back. But in a storm, always keep the bow pointed against the wind, cutting into the wind-driven waves of water. Never turn your stern to the wind and waves, because you will be driven wherever the wind and waves are headed – very often run aground or onto the rocks. Never never never turn broadside to the wind and waves. If you do, shipwreck is certain. You will be capsized, swamped and sunk. On a whimsical note, there’s no sense dropping an anchor if there’s nothing for the anchor to fasten itself to.
Sometimes a ship is wrecked from within and not from outside forces. Victor Hugo wrote a story called Ninety-Three about a wooden cargo ship caught in a dangerous storm on the high seas. At the height of the storm the frightened sailors heard a terrible crashing noise coming from the cargo hold below the deck They knew at once that the noise came from a huge cannon being transported as part of the ship’s cargo. It had been tied down, but somehow it had broken loose. It moved from side to side with the swaying and rolling of the ship, crashing into the side of the ship with a terrible impact. They knew this loose cannon could break a hole in the hull and the ship would sink. The loose cannon inside the ship was a greater danger than the storms outside. What would you do in such an event? Would you risk life and limb to tie down the loose cannon, or would you pray that God would keep it from sinking the ship?
There’s a great parable about life here. Our faith is like a ship that can get us safely through the storms of life. The unpredictable and sometimes terrifying sea is used in scripture as a metaphor of the unpredictable and sometimes terrifying affairs of human life and circumstance (especially in the Revelation). We could talk about chart and compass – the word of God, perhaps the Spirit of God. We could talk about the great anchor which fastens our hope by faith in Christ, present now with God beyond the veil of physical death – He is our hope; he is the anchor for our souls (Heb. 6:20). So, those of us whose faith has led us to baptized into Christ, identified with him and belonging to him, we feel safe in the care and keeping of the One who can calm the sea and keep us at peace (Mt. 8:23-27). How tragic then that so many are shipwrecked and lost because of something inside, not outside. There are cannons of rage, hostility, and hatred. There are cannons of pride, jealousy, greed, lust, and addiction. Cannons of unresolved hurt, anger, lack of forgiveness, guilt. You get the picture. Any of these cannons can get loose and damage the ship of our faith from within. Our relationships with others, our personal faith in God, our mind and emotions and will – even our very life – can be damaged and destroyed when one of these cannons gets loose.
Everybody has these things lurking down in the cargo hold of his life. Nobody is exempt. We must tie them down securely and keep them locked away. If something breaks loose and creates a threat to our ship of faith it is up to us to do something with the problem. No sense in letting our cannons loose and asking God to make sure our loose cannons don’t do us any permanent harm. If we do not keep the faith and maintain a clear conscience we will cause our own shipwreck with regard to the faith.
– Gerald Cowan