Lessons Learned from the Sinking of the Titanic, Given its 100th Anniversary This Year

2012!  I think of the Titanic.  Yes, this year marks the one hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

The account of the Titanic’s sinking continues to fascinate new generations.  Why?  Perhaps it is because, as a true story, it succinctly captures human nature and the drama of human life so well, its aspiring hopes, tragic losses, and resilient recoveries, accentuating humanity’s arrogance and smallness as well as its greatness and magnificent potential.  It’s all there, played out in real life and real time, in the sinking of the Titanic.

Lessons learned from the Titanic are still as poignant now as they were then.  What are they?

Lesson one: It’s best not to become overly confident and arrogant in our achievements.  THE UNSINKABLE SHIP!  That’s what the Titanic was called.  “Even God can’t sink her,” someone dared to assert.  Yet it sank on its Maiden Voyage, and fast!

It is a weakness of human nature.  We tend to grow cocky, become overly confident, and begin to act brashly in our successes.  We soon begin to act as if we have become invincible.  We think to ourselves, “I am my own master.  I am in control.  Nothing will stop me.”

Then Reality strikes.  Nature, Life, or God quickly puts us in our place.  A tsunami, an earthquake, a nuclear-plant meltdown, or all three at once reminds us of how small we humans really are, floating on a little ball we call planet earth in this vast great dark Universe.  We learn and re-learn that we are not as in control of things as we’d like to think.  Indeed, even those things which we ourselves have built or have created on our own, may overwhelm us.

Lesson Two: When things go bad, really bad, as in a sinking ship, great souls rise to the occasion while lesser souls reveal their hidden monstrosity.  There are the Great Souls unseen and unrecognized, being low on the economic social stratum, then there are the undetected small souls hiding behind their great wealth and power.

Small Souls?  Haughty, arrogant, self-centered, me-first types who have little consideration and respect for the want and needs of others but make a lot of noise and fuss to bring attention to their owns needs, often getting their own wants taken care of at other’s expense.

A sinking ship quickly reveals who-is-who: Great Souls immediately begin to rise while small souls rapidly descend.  And we realize that the wealthy and elite of First Class, as such, don’t really deserve to be given priority in a rescue operation?  Human life is human life, and all deserve an equal chance at being rescued.  We soon learn that it’s not about economic class, education, or talent; it’s about spirit and soul, inner character, and nobility of heart.

Of course there are many more lessons than these two.  But these two will suffice for the moment.  If anything, we might say that we hopefully have re-learned these two lessons from the events of 2011.

Applying Lesson One: Hubris!  Our arrogance is, has been and always will be our downfall.  We succeed, become wealthy, powerful, and conquer the world and begin to think that we can in fact have everything our way unabated.  We begin to rely more and more on sheer strength and power to force our will and get our way, and then boom!  The ceiling drops on our heads; the floor falls from beneath our feet and in utter shame and humiliation, with unimaginable grief and heartache we are stopped in our tracks.  Forces way beyond our capacity to control have taken over and we are doomed.  Reality check!  Let’s not get big headed about who we are, where we’re going, and how we’re getting there.  Humble yourself before God and He will exalt you.  (1 Peter 5:6)

Applying Lesson Two: Greed!  To put it personally, all your accumulated wealth makes you no better than I am.  Perhaps you (whoever ‘you’ may be) are wealthy precisely because you are less than I am, more willing to cheat, lie and steal, and more ready to exploit the vulnerable.  You have put profit over principle and have nurtured secrecy over open-honesty.  You have served yourself over-against the needs of others.  But your approach to work, life, and business is a recipe for failure.  In the end, you will be toppled.  For you go too far, take too much, and destroy too many lives along the way—all for sheer greed.  For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.  (1 Timothy 6:10)

Just two headliners from last year serve as reminders of these two lessons: the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street.  The question is: will our actions and decisions in 2012 demonstrate that we have adequately learned these lessons?  Time will tell.