I got a wonderful letter the other day from Mike, who was a teenager in one of my Campus Life Clubs a looong time ago. He was reflecting on those high school years and his summer job as a lifeguard. Let me just quote from his letter: "Lotsa city folk who couldn't swim came out to our beach, and we went in many, many times for them. I was paranoid that I would lose someone on my watch and we never did." Then he went on to describe another nearby beach as a place "where suburban-trained swimmers go. They did lose a child when no one else was looking."
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft, and I want to have A Word With You today about "The View from the Lifeguard's Chair."
There was a reason Mike wrote to me about his lifeguard experiences. He put it in the context of how hard it was to get the folks in his church involved in being the spiritual rescuers for the lost and dying people around them. Pouring out his heart, my friend said, "I can't think in terms of not reaching my neighbors, co-workers, and people I run into for Jesus."
My friend understands something a lot of us forget all to easily - that every believer in Jesus Christ has a lifeguard's responsibility. And just like the lifeguard job, the stakes of doing it or not doing it are life-or-death.
Our word for today from the Word of God makes that crystal clear. In Ezekiel 33:6, God says, "If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood." God reinforces the seriousness of our assignment again in verse 8 - "When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you will surely die,' and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for His blood."
If the watchman of the city knows the people of the city are in mortal danger and does nothing about it, the watchman is accountable for their blood. If the lifeguard knows someone is in danger of drowning and does nothing about it, he's accountable. If you know someone who is in eternal danger because they don't really understand what Jesus did on the cross for them, you are accountable for their blood.
When Jesus sees the people in your neighborhood, where you work, where you go to school, He sees them through a rescuer's eyes - He sees dying people. And He does whatever it takes to give them a chance to live. Would you ask Jesus to help you see what He sees when He looks at the people around you? This stretch of the beach is up to you - He's given you eternal responsibility for the people there. If they go down forever, will it be because "no one was looking"?
Pray daily for a natural way to tell those dear people about Jesus. Get closer to them so you're in a position to rescue them. Love them as Jesus would - then tell them about His love.
The price of failure, of looking away, of your fear could be a life Jesus died to save. Somebody has to tell them. And God has assigned you. Don't let anyone be lost on your watch because no one was watching, because no one went in to save them.