From November 18, 2013
I would like to share with you something that happened 100 years ago to Sir Ernest Shackleton, the Antarctic explorer.
Their ship having been crushed in the ice and sunk, Shackleton left most of his crew on a desert island while he and a few men went for help. After crossing 800 miles of stormy ocean in a patched-up longboat, and landing on South Georgia Island, Shackleton and two men had to slog across the mountainous, heavily-glaciated island to reach a whaling station.
After incredible hardships and against seemingly insurmountable odds, they made it. All the men were rescued. The following is from Shackleton’s own memoir:
“When I look back at those days I have no doubt that Providence guided us, not only across those snow-fields, but across the storm-white sea that separated Elephant Island from our landing-place on South Georgia. I know that during that long and racking march of thirty-six hours over the unnamed mountains and glaciers of South Georgia it seemed to me often that we were four, not three. I said nothing to my companions on the point, but afterwards Worsley said to me, ‘Boss, I had a curious feeling on the march that there was another person with us.’ Crean confessed to the same idea. One feels ‘the dearth of human words, the roughness of mortal speech’ in trying to describe things intangible, but a record of our journeys would be incomplete without a reference to a subject very near our hearts.”
Compare this to the experience of another three men, farther back in time. It’s from Chapter 3 of the Book of Daniel.
“Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury… and he commanded the most mighty men… to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace… Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and said unto the counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they have no hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”
Sophisticated modern pinheads reject the Bible story out of hand: miracles simply do not happen. But no one has dared to question the story told by Shackleton and his two companions.
Then again, what do I know? There are probably academics who say that never happened, either.
There are some who seeing, see not. These same people can talk all day on the “phone”, to someone they’ve never seen and may never see, wave a wand to light a lamp, look through a telescope to tell us there’s nothing out there but nothing and it turned into this astoundingly amazing universe! Figure that out. Paul got it right. It’s amazing to me but they just don’t want to see!
I had never heard of this before, but I’m not about to cast any doubts.
It is interesting.
I suspect that God intervenes more often than we realize.
You are probably right with that.
she also used different sticks depending on how sensitive the area was that she wanted to scratch. A softer one when she wanted to scratch her udder., for example.
Animals are smart. I spent the morning moving money around, paying bills and dealing with the practical aspect of life. On the other hand, my cat is resting comfortably on my lap. Who’s smarter?
I can guess the answer to that one. They run the show
I’ll answer, as soon as the cat tells me what to say. 🙂
And you better follow her instructions.
I know what’s good for me. 🙂
Good boy.