It wasn't just another day with the family at the beach. The lifeguards at Ocean City, N.J. made everyone get out of the water - fast! I was thinking "Jaws" - so I was very cooperative. Instead, it was all about two children who they had to plunge in and rescue.
Then there are those times when you just can't wait for the big guys to get there. Twelve-year-old Nicole Kissel was boogie boarding last week in the Pacific Ocean off Washington's Long Beach when she heard someone nearby screaming, "Help! Help!" It was 7th grader Dale Ostrander who was there that day with his youth group - and suddenly in deadly trouble in the surf.
Nicole maneuvered over to the drowning boy, pulled him onto her board and started paddling toward shore. Suddenly a huge wave threw them both off the board and carried the board away. Nicole managed to resurface, but Dale was gone. It took the surf rescue team about ten minutes to get to the scene and a few more minutes to find Dale and bring him to shore. The rescuers didn't think he'd make it. But miraculously, he was revived and is now recovering.
I'm grateful for courageous guys like those trained rescuers at Ocean City and Long Beach. But it's young Nicole who's my hero in this story. The professionals were doing what it's their job to do. Nicole didn't have to risk her life to save someone else's. But she did - and may have kept him out of the water just long enough to have made the difference.
She took the risk to rescue for one simple reason - the person in danger was within her reach. If she had said, "I'm not a rescuer...I'll just wait for the guys who do this for a living," Dale would almost surely have been lost.
Which is causing me to ask myself, "Who is there within my reach who may die if I don't do something?" That's "die" as in the person who "will be taken away because of his sin"...who "will die for his sin." The one of whom the Bible says, "I will hold you accountable for his blood" (Ezekiel 33:8). Why? Because I knew that "whoever believes in Him (Jesus) shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
When you let Jesus help you see the people in your personal world through His eyes, you'll see them as more than just coworkers or neighbors or fellow students or customers. You'll see that person as an eternity person, a future inhabitant of eternity. In heaven or hell. Someone whose eternity can be changed - if only I'll reach out and tell them what I know about Jesus.
Each of us who knows Christ has someone within our reach who doesn't. And we can't just wait for some "professional rescuer" or "someone who has a gift of evangelism" to attempt the rescue. The rescue responsibility rests with the believer who is there. There's nothing random about where we work or live or recreate or go to school. We've been divinely positioned to be God's designated "lifeguard" for our stretch of beach.
And why don't we? Fear. Fear of being rejected, of losing, of messing it up. Fears that have one thing in common - they're all about me. Young Nicole was scared, too. She admitted, "I actually said out loud, 'I'm going to die.'" But her fear didn't decide what she did. Her bottom line in her own words: "No matter who it is and they need help, I will risk my life. I will do it."
Just like Jesus.