By Eddie Brown
God always has this way of rekindling deep thoughts from spiritual “revelations” of my past. I have not been able to verify if this phenomenon is common for most people but I would hope so. The depth and richness of those memories reborn are something that I treasure dearly. Most recently it has come in the form of the early literature I read right after becoming a believer, it was a book by C.S. Lewis called the “Voyage of the Dawn Treader”. In this fairy tale for children, that is an allegory and picture of our spiritual life, prince Caspian sets on a voyage. He gets on his ship the “Dawn Treader” and sails out with two missions:
- To sail as far east as he can to see his great king Aslan
- To rescue seven people who have gone missing
This is the theme of the book: “Worship” and “Rescue”. What a beautiful picture of our own spiritual lives. On their adventure, Caspian sets sail with a few good buddies and they encounter all forms of danger and challenges. In one moment of deep discouragement when they are right on the edge of turning back there is one character, Repicheep, who delivers one of my favorite lines ever. He says, “While I can, I sail east in the Dawn Treader. When she fails me, I paddle east in my coracle. When she sinks, I shall swim east with my four paws. And when I can swim no longer, if I have not reached Aslan’s country, or shot over the edge of the world in some vast cataract, I shall sink with my nose to the sunrise”. What a great attitude to have!!! Regardless of our circumstances we need to remember that we too are chasing a great king: Christ.
“Seek ye first His kingdom and His righteousness and all other things will be added unto thee” Matthew 6:33