Save Me!

We were at kids’ camp a few weeks ago (Look Up Lodge), and there was a powerful illustration on the last night. We were all outside at the amphitheater singing around the campfire when one of the counselors rowed by in a canoe.

When the camp director stopped us and asked this young man why he was breaking the rules and canoeing by himself, he replied that he just got a new fishing rod and couldn’t wait to try it out. Then he went to cast the line, but when he did he also knocked his oar out into the water. He put his rod down and reached for the oar, but then he fell out of the canoe.

Although he had made a comment a moment earlier about not being able to swim, while he was doggy paddling in the water towards his oar he kept yelling that he was all right. One of the lifeguards positioned himself on the bank, ready to make the rescue, but Greg, the camp director, kept telling him to wait.

The counselor in the water began to wear out, and even though he kept saying he could save himself, he eventually succumbed to exhaustion and yelled out, “Save me!”

With those words, Greg gave the lifeguard the green light, and in less than a minute both guys were safely back on shore.  

Greg then admitted to the audience that this event was staged, but we all saw the illustration before he made it. Many of us try to save ourselves, doing good deeds and thinking our righteousness will get us to heaven. Meanwhile Jesus waits from the shore to hear those two words: Save me!

Once we realize our desperate need for salvation and that we cannot save ourselves, and once we finally cry out to the Lord, He will plunge right in and save us. Have you cried out to the Lord for salvation, or are you trying to save yourself?

“Whosoever shall call upon the Lord shall be saved.”

Romans 10:13