All is Lost

"Somewhere in the Indian Ocean ("1700 nautical miles from the Sumatra Straits"), a man (Robert Redford) says, "I'm sorry. I know that means little at this point, but I am. I tried. I think you would all agree that I tried. To be true, to be strong, to be kind, to love, to be right, but I wasn't." He declares, "All is lost." (Wikipedia)

Then we jump to 8 days earlier, seeing the beginning of the problems he faced.  This sailor wakes to water in the boat, caused by a freak collision with a shipping container.  It would seem insurmountable to see the water gushing into the boat, but he kept a cool head, and was able to make repairs to the hull, and manually pump the water out using his bilge pump.  Then, he noticed the water shorted out his electricity, including his radio.  He tries unsuccessfully to repair it, but there is no repair.

Just when he tries to relax, he sees a tropical storm come in, and gets prepared to ride out the storm.  The storm proved too strong, and he capsized twice, causing irreparable damage to the boat.  He must use his life raft.  More problems arise, and at the end, we see a man at the end of his ropes.  He writes the above message into a bottle and sends it out.

As I watched this man go through hardship after hardship, I couldn't help but think of times in our lives we feel hammered by bad times.  The bad times look different for different people, but each of us go through them.  At times, we feel "all is lost."  We wonder where God is when we are going through this.  Does He hear us when we cry out?  Why are we suffering like this?

We are not the only ones who cry out to God this way.  Job continued to cry out to God and asked why.  David asks "Why do You look the other way?  Why do You ignore our suffering and oppression?" (Psalms 44:24 NLT)

We suffer because we live in a broken world.  Life happens, and it will be full of good moments, as well as bad times.  We have to remember that God is there, right beside us, ready to rescue us when the time is right for Him.  Consider this verse:

In all their suffering He also suffered,

and He personally rescued them.

In His love and mercy He redeemed them.

He lifted them up and carried them through all the years.

~Isaiah 63:9 (NLT)

I'd be spoiling the movie for you to tell you the ending.  Just take a couple hours and rent the movie.  It's a great reminder that life happens, and that God is right there all along the way.