After hearing the story of Shackleton and his crew afresh recently, and realizing but yet unable to understand the hardships they endured, the trust the crew had in Shackelton, the months of waiting, the pain of watching their ship get crushed into the ice, the winter spent in the bitter Antarctic weather, the herioc effort of escape, the failure, the penguin diet, the months of waiting in suspense while Shackleton and a few of his men sailed 800 miles over open seas to South Georgia Island, the hurricane experienced at sea, the final beaching—on the wrong side of the island, Shackelton and one of his men hiking around 35 miles over mountains and ice and deep snow in 36 hours, reaching the whaling station, the final rescue of those waiting on the other side of the Island and the 20 men on Elephant Island 22 months since they had seen any outside life, the loss of not one man… a story of courage… and patience.

It’s the refusal to give up, the courage and the will to live that we need to focus on. Even though the era of heroic exploration has concluded, there is something that we can draw and learn from this thrilling story. Something that can reflect into our lives and mean something to us personally. It is courage. Courage is needed as much when the sea is calm and the sails are slack and we are ashore on some deserted island as in the height of a storm. Courage and patience go hand in hand—if there is no patience then courage is weak. We must be willing to wait… willing to stand still… willing to have courage even when things all seem to go wrong. We have a captain to trust, we have a commander we can rely upon. Does it seem like the wind has stopped? Are the sails slack? Keep your ship waterworthy, friends. Keep the sails in repair.

Trust your captain!