She was to be the pride of the fleet. Commissioned by the king himself to shore up the heavy losses the navy had recently incurred, the Vasa would bring much needed fire power and boost the morale of her sailors.
Yet the Vasa was not merely a gunship, she was to symbolize the superiority of Sweden. King Gustav Adolf had the ship covered in hundreds of sculptures reflecting Sweden’s splendor and belittling her enemy Poland.
Carvings of lions, angels, warriors, Roman gods, and more covered the hull of the ship. Their rainbow of colors, augmented with red and gold accents, made the Vasa one of most amazing looking ships ever built.
On the day she launched, the shores were filled with dignitaries and onlookers. Everyone was awed by the new ship and cheered as she raised her sails for the first time and headed to sea to win the battles for which she had been commissioned.
Only the Vasa never won a battle.
She never brought awe to the enemy and pride to the fleet.
She never even made it out of the harbor.
As soon as she raised her sails, the ship began to roll andin less than a nautical mile, this amazing new vessel, the ship the King had been so eager to get into service, foundered and sank.
So much attention had been paid to the look of the ship, that focus had been pulled away from the most important feature of a sailing ship’s design.
Stability.
Sailing ships are by nature top heavy. The Vasa was no different. And with the addition of the hundreds of wooden carvings, this ship was even more top heavy than most. Combined with too small a keel and inefficient ballast, the ship was simply unable to keep its balance the first time the wind hit the sails.
In Matthew chapter’s 5-7, Jesus delivers the Sermon on Mount. In the conclusion of his message, Jesus shares the following.
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. 26 Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.” (NASB)
As Christians, we are eager to do the Lord’s work. We dream of battling for Christ, of striking fear in the enemy, of encouraging each one another, of making our King proud.
We buy the right kinds of books, we attend encouraging seminars, we listen to the right kind of music and we stay busy at the church doing the work of the Kingdom.
Yet, if we do all these things and neglect the foundation of our calling, we will founder, and we will fail.
The lesson of the Vasa and the lesson of Christ in this passage is that you cannot build from the top down. The answer to spiritual struggles is not to spend more time volunteering, or to buy a new book from the latest Christian author, or to send money to a televangelist or seek out the latest conference.
Instead, we must build a foundation on faith in Christ through prayer and reading God’s word.
This simple formula has remained unchanged for the last two thousand years. And yet, it seems to be the one we struggle with the most.
And so I offer you this challenge. Take a few minutes and write down where you are in your faith right now.
Then this week, read one short Bible passage per day and spend just 5 minutes in prayer at the end of every day’s reading.
At the end of a week, redo your spiritual inventory and compare the two.
My prayer for you is that God will use this to renew in you a commitment to His word and use it to strengthen your foundation.
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New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation