Autopilot

I am reading about two young ladies who are sailing around the world solo. One of them had to stop to have some repairs made on her autopilot, so she lost the "non-stop" part of her attempt. To put it all in a sentence, she was trying to become the youngest girl to sail solo around the world non-stop. The media made a big deal about her losing her shot at that, but only the 'non-stop' part is out, the rest has not changed.

Here are the links - one of these young ladies is from Thousand Oaks, CA, the other from New Zealand.

Abby
Jessica


You can follow along with me if you would like - they have web sites, of course, with maps and photos and videos, and all that. I am not that old, but I can remember when people sailed in races across oceans, or when older people made these very same attempts - but the technology simply did not exist for minute-by-minute updates, blog updates, vlogs, sat phones, GPS systems, etc. In fact, the autopilot on board would be a vane witch simply kept you going in the same angle to the wind, but was no use at all if the wind shifted even a little bit. As a result, sailing across vast distances solo meant that you either took in sail when you had to sleep, or you didn't sleep for days at a time. Today, you can plot a course from a laptop, or input a course on a dedicated control unit with a keyboard, and the boat will respond by sailing an exact course. Some of them will even make minor changes in the rigging of the vessel as needed for wind changes, and even the most basic unit will wake you with an alarm if you go very far off course. In fact, you can chose how far off course you get before the alarm pulls you from your bed.

Where is that technology for our churches, our teaching, our personal spirituality, even our daily lives? Our nation? I would propose that WE are the autopilot. Or at least I would propose that WE are the 'alarm' portion. It is up to us Christians, and the Bible-believing churches around the world, to sound the alarm when we see our world wandering off course.