CARRYING DEATH AROUND… AND NOT KNOWING IT… ARE YOU ALSO DOING NOTHING ABOUT IT?
On 6th September 1971, the newspapers in the Netherlands
screamed, "El Al [Airlines] plane nearly blown up. Dutch girl got bomb from
a friend' 'Dutch unsuspecting accomplice' 'Bomber-girl seduced by love and
hashish.’
The unsuspecting accomplice bomber-girl was a 19-year-old Dutch woman called Catharina
Windemeijer (pen-name or pseudonym for Jayanti van der Meer, who was born as Jetty
van der Meer). Catharina left home to backpack around
Europe, and went to Serbia’s capital, Belgrade. What drew her to
Belgrade? She told her mom she would be visiting friends there… She was a
hippie, the popular lifestyle of the time, attracted to living a life of sex, drugs, and seeking after freedom. (“Hippies
often dressed unconventionally, lived communally, and used psychedelic drugs.” From
Microsoft® Encarta® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights
reserved.)
Whilst still in Belgrade, she met a Lebanese young man (who
she calls George in an interview). George was asked for the popular Lebanese
hashish, which he said he had, and that’s how he joined their group.
George then
asked Catharina to take some things to his home in Bethlehem, in Israel, all because
he wanted to go to the United States of America. He asked her to bring to his
family a letter and presents! It doesn’t make much sense, does it? But how did
she accept to go on such a bizarre errand? She openly says she was constantly
stoned (under the influence of drugs), and she didn’t think any further that
this was a strange proposition.
So George went ahead and bought the plane tickets! Then they went together to Rome from where she was to fly
out to Tel Aviv, Israel. At the last moment, George asked her to also take
with her to his home a big suitcase that he had been carrying around. She obliged, and
packed her clothes there, then the presents they had bought together for his
family.
They then said
goodbye, although George talked rather less than normal over the coffee they had shortly before her departure.
She assured him that all would be fine and that they would meet again in three
days, as she was supposed to come back in three days. she'd be coming back in three
days? Why couldn’t he go to his home and deliver the items himself, then?
On the plane
to Tel Aviv, Catharina met a Jewish young man who was her seatmate on the
plane. He found Catharina’s story strange – letter, presents, and all – and gave her his
phone number to call him in case something went wrong.
In
Bethlehem, she searched for the address George had given her, and it turned out
that such an address never existed! She felt terrible with no money to get
back! Now her mind started to work! She went to the Police, who, after a futile
search for the address and asking around about George’s non-existent family,
put her up in a hotel for the night. She was restless and terrified that night,
hearing shooting and sounds of war all around! Then a thought struck her that the
suitcase seemed to have a false bottom! Catharina thinks that it was her guardian angel
who revealed that one!
She called
the Jewish man she had met on the plane, and when they met, she told him of her suspicion, then they cut open the false bottom with a knife he had. Lo and behold, there
was a high pressure bomb hidden there, all ready to explode! They informed the Police, who
analysed that such bombs would detonate with a change of pressure, in this case, if there had
been a lowering of the pressure in the luggage area of the plane! But the El Al
Airlines plane she took had the same pressure in the passenger and luggage
areas, so the bomb couldn’t have gone off!
When she finally
got back home in the Netherlands, she realised that she didn’t know much about
the world… that she was so ignorant… she had just been blandly living one day
to the next! She realised that she needed to make extreme changes for a positive
turnaround! So she took the bold step to change – no more drugs, pursue a
career, be wiser about the world, and trust no one. She never saw nor heard of
that George she met in Belgrade again! She is better at trusting people!
Friends,
there is plenty to learn from this episode. The devil helps us carry our own
doom: in what we see, do, hear, eat, drink, read… the list is endless!! Many
never question why they keep on doing what they do, why they keep to the level
of existent and beliefs that they stick to! No wonder many fall for Satan’s double
raw deal: a suitcase with a false bottom of transient pleasures… and we carry
it ourselves… at our own expense! And in the unfortunate event that the bomb
explodes, it affects many of those around us because we don’t sin in a vacuum!
It ever
seems strange that many flock after the devil’s ways: a being they have never
known or seen, and yet they spite the much better alternatives found in a
God-led life! If the argument is that, “I have never seen God either,” then the
most reasonable option to follow in making a decision is to follow the unseen Leader
with a better end! That just makes sense! And only God makes such sense!
If that is
not convincing enough, history tells us of another Jewish Man, born in
Bethlehem, who was ‘forced’ by love to disregard Eternity in order that HE shows
us a better way to live – a way that HE had intended when HE created all that
there is! Jesus did all HE could to highlight how myopic our vision was… how we
could not see through the many false bottoms in the suitcases that we were
carrying… HE unravelled the futility of a merry-go-round and meaningless life
without HIS magic divine formula of obedience in love!
Those of us
who have deliberately taken a dose of this divine prescription can confidently
declare and testify that Jesus stills the cacophony and noise of men’s restless
plodding through life, and that HE gives peace and purpose today and the hope
for an even better life hereafter! You don’t get a double raw deal with HIM, it
is a winner that you get today, which assures of the win awaiting in the
future! There are no hidden costs and no luggage to carry around as a condition
attached to the free ticket to eternal life that God gives!
The Bible
has great life examples of those that made the right choice when they
encountered Christ. We can learn from them a great deal:
MOSES: At
the prime of life, Moses rebuffed the opulence of Egyptian royalty, and saw
through the false bottom of the “pleasures of sin” that are “for a season”
(Hebrews 11:25). The verse blatantly accepts that sin has “pleasures”, but, in
the final analysis, they are sinful pleasures, and nothing good has ever arisen
from sin! As mortal men, we are being reminded that we are limited in our
vision if left to ourselves! Moses is immortalised as the epitome of meekness
and spiritual leadership today, whilst, for the few Egyptian pharaohs we know
of, it is their wealth and tombs that we know of, and nothing else of note!
What a difference!
SOLOMON: The
wise King Solomon says “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the
end thereof are the ways of death.” Proverbs 14:12, and Solomon repeats
himself, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are
the ways of death.” Proverbs 16:25. If there are two ways to choose from – God
and Satan – Solomon is telling us that choosing on our own, which has a high propensity
to be wrong if done without God’s leading, leads to ways of death. Then the
verse also clearly says that the way that has Satan at the head leads to “ways
of death”! Note plurality here: one way leads to many ways of death! There are
numerous ways that Satan leads lost lives to end in utter ruin and destruction
– lustful indulgencies, addictions, and a deliberate disregard to the wooing of
the Almighty to live right! There is always the better alternative to choose
that is found in God’s way! This is coming from a king who had the wisdom to
advise aright. The immense wealth and fame he had did not spoil his
perceptions! We can learn from that. And remember that Solomon reminds us not once,
but twice in one book!
If this DOUBLE
REMINDER from King Solomon is not enough, there is TRIPLE REMINDER that strikes
the point home even louder:
JOB says: “And
unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart
from evil is understanding.” Job 28:28.
DAVID then
reiterates: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good
understanding have all they that do his commandments...” Psalm 111:10
SOLOMON then
comes in again to concur, probably taking the cue from his father, David: “The
fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is
understanding.” Proverbs 9:10. Solomon goes further to disclose the foolishness
and dire consequences of not heeding this divine call: Proverb 1:7 “The fear of
the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and
instruction.” Proverbs 2:5 “Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD,
and find the knowledge of God.” Proverbs 10:27 “The
fear of the LORD prolongeth days: but the years of the wicked shall be
shortened.”
PAUL: Paul
tells us that the greatest loss to man is the missed entry to the eternal
interests that Jesus offers! “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23. Satan’s many
alternatives come with a useless baggage of avoidable disease, emotional
disequilibrium, and lost resources – money, time… you can name it! and then all
these lead to one thing – death! And it’s eternal death for those who shall
have no hope in living eternally!
If Catharina
saw that she was running a fruitless race in what I could loosely call her ‘basic’
lifestyle, why can’t we see the higher spiritual stakes that surround our lives?
These are issues that need our utmost attention to make a positive turnaround
too! Without such a bold step to change, like Catharina, one wrong decision will lead another: each probably greater than the last!
Let me
invite you to come and unburden your heavy load at the Cross of Christ and let
HIM lead the way? Matthew 11:28 “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest.” You will never go astray again! John 14:6 “I
am the way, the truth, and the life….”
Are you too
busy for God that you don’t really care to make a decision in HIS favour? Think
again about the dreary and bleak option you are choosing to following by not
doing anything about God! You can find time for God! After all, HE created time
in the first place and if you are willing, HE can help you make time for HIM! With
HIM at the helm, you will be assured you are heading right into Eternity where
you are meant to be according to Christ’s promise of restoration in John 14:2,3 “…I go to
prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
It’s all in
your favour! Choose life! Choose Christ! God bless you!
Mthusani.
Mthusani.
