It was a life-saving dance of sorts that unfolded on July 13, 2018, as the pilot of a Chinook helicopter hovered dramatically near the slope of Oregon’s 11,240-foot Mount Hood. With incredible skill the pilot maneuvered the aircraft so that two wheels touched down on the side of the mountain so rescuers could drop a ramp and exit and enter the helicopter as they rescued a man who had apparently planned to commit suicide, but then changed his mind.
According to Global News, “The rescue was triggered after a 27-year-old climber in distress called for help on Thursday afternoon… But he didn’t answer his phone when officials with the Clackamas County Sheriff’s office tried to return his call. Searchers managed to track his phone call to Mount Hood’s summit. A search and rescue team took some time to find the man, locating him when it wasn’t safe to escort him off the mountain…The rescuers had to lower themselves to all fours in order to avoid the chopper’s rotors.”
So, the dance went something like this:
· The climber put himself in danger.
· Recognizing his plight, he called for help.
· The rescue team traced the climbers call and came to where he was.
· A helicopter was dispatched to the scene.
· With the help of the rescue team the climber entered the chopper and was airlifted to safety.
The climber could not save himself. Without a search and rescue team the climber may have perished. However, if the climber had not called for help and cooperated with the rescuers, he may have perished. So the climber would not have been saved without reaching out and cooperating. He was saved by the coast guard through his cooperation.
Human beings are rescued from sin and eternal destruction in much the same way. There is a dance that goes on. God provides the grace and man provides the faith. God gives grace and power, believers trust and obey. Grace is what God provides, faith is man’s response. God leads… man follows.
This topic has been discussed and written about for centuries, but there are two scriptures that sum it up nicely:
· Ephesians 2:8 KJV: For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
· James 2:17 NIV: In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
Salvation is not an event, it is a dance. It is a place of safety based on one’s relationship with The Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
A believer’s dance with God goes something like this:
· With God’s help, a person recognizes they need saving.
· Recognizing their plight, they call for help.
· The rescue team (God and his people) track down the person in need and go to where they are.
· God dispatches angels, His word and His people to the scene to lead them to salvation.
· With the help of the rescue team the believer repents of sin, washes those sins away in baptism and is empowered to live free by the infilling of God’s Spirit
God leads, we follow. Then we dance with him all the way to heaven!