What is a Shipwrecked Pilgrim?

     Thomas Merton in The Wisdom of the Desert states: "Society ... was regarded by the Desert Fathers as a SHIPWRECK from which each single individual man had to swim for his life ...These were men who believed that to let oneself drift along, passively accepting the tenents and values of what they knew as society, was purely and simply a disaster" The picture on this blog gives me a vivid reminder of what the world (society, culture) is really like - desperate people in need of rescue. God's Word tells me that I too was trapped in that shipwreck and in need of rescue. The Good News is that in the finished work of Jesus we experience the remedy for our condition and rescue from the wreck!
    As His redeemed I am now a PILGRIM in this world. My citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20) but I live here in this world - in the midst of a shipwrecked society. What does life look like for a rescued pilgrim moving through a shipwrecked world? How can I avoid drifting along with the wreck and yet still engage this world with the life of Christ?
    I believe that we are called to develop sabbath rhythms comprised of "swimming away" from the shipwreck to places of rest, renewal, refreshment, and reshaping by God's presence and then swimming back into the wreck again to make God's invisible Kingdom visible, to intelligently and lovingly engage with our culture and to truly be salt and light. This "swimming away" and "swimming back" are to be daily patterns discovered and lived out in the life of every believer. So, our title, "Shipwrecked Pilgrim"! A regular part of this blog will be to discover how to both move away from the wreck and how to engage with it again as God's people.

In His Kingdom,
pastor chris