I first took my family on a snorkeling
trip to Key Largo when my son was in elementary school. We chartered a boat
with another couple. A couple of years later we would be snorkeling with about
fifty other people made up of snorkelers and riders only (big mistake). Before
departing the captain of the boat offered placebos to all on board for possible
seasickness, but many had refused; we swallowed our pill just in case. Once we
arrived at the snorkeling site, the captain said he would sound the ship’s horn
when he wanted us to return to the boat to head back or in the event of an
emergency. We were going to spend about an hour and a half in the water.
The skipper looked to be a rough-looking salty dog in his early forties, living out his fantasy of being an admiral on the high seas; I surmised. Possessed with a flair for the dramatics with his bellowing
of orders and demonstrative body language, he seemed to be unusually absorbed
with exercising his authority as captain of the ship. He looked to be well beyond
his years, perhaps hardened by a riotous lifestyle of island
living, women, whiskey, and song. The hint of alcohol on his breath during the
welcome aboard ceremony betrayed the reality that he was sailing the high seas
(plural). He seemed outwardly friendly, but something told me this man was
suffering from short man syndrome with an even shorter fuse.
Once we got to the reef, we were
quickly in the water. Unbeknownst to us the swells were taking a toll on those
who remained on board and who had refused before leaving port to take up the
captain’s offer to fend off seasickness. I was keeping a close watch on our
time as we were enjoying our snorkeling adventure. We had about twenty minutes
remaining before having to return to the ship when the horn sounded. Right
before taking off my fins and getting back on board, I asked the captain who was
near the ladder why we were called back since we still had fifteen minutes
remaining. The captain shouted for everyone to hear, “I got a boatload of sick
passengers! You go ahead and snorkel for fifteen more minutes while we wait on
you!” If I wasn’t a Christian, I would have grabbed that guy by the neck and pulled
him into the water to cool off. I
replied calmly, “I didn’t know that you had sick passengers; of course, I will
come aboard.” If nothing else was said, I could have lived with the decision of
the captain.
Before we set “sail,” everyone on the
boat knew of the captain’s anger with me. I could see him telling others and
pointing to me like I was some kind of scurvy dog. The sick were looking at me
as if I was a cold and despicable person lacking compassion! He was making a
big production of putting me down in front of others the whole way back to the
docks being ever so careful not to allow me to hear his degrading comments; the looks said
it all. I felt as if I was the most hated and despised man aboard! Even when we got off the boat the captain was still mouthing about me to
others who simply looked at me and shook their heads!
I was so baffled and taken aback by his
behavior that I couldn’t get to the point of being willfully angry at the time. It was as
if God was anchoring my emotions to prevent any escalation. I had every right
to complain to his superiors about how I was mistreated as a customer, but I didn’t.
In some odd way, I felt pity for him and wanted to deck him all at the same
time, in Christian love of course. He had put me through a very embarrassing
and extremely uncomfortable ordeal over nothing. In my pre-Christian days, I
would have given him something else to talk about, but that is flesh-talking in
retrospect.
The spiritual dynamics playing out
here were that demons give no quarter or sign any peace treaties with believers,
never. They are everywhere, even in “paradise,” Why did I so foolishly forget
about the snake in the Garden (Gn 3:1)! Not only that, they never seek our good
only harmful intent; the same Holy Spirit living in Peter lives in us, and they
didn’t like Peter either (cf. Lk 22:31; 1 Pet 5:8). There is not a piece of inhabited
real estate on earth that is not under spiritual surveillance by the enemy, looking for any entrance to assault believers. There is no telling how many demons were aboard the Demon Dive on that sunny day in
Spiritually speaking, and I don’t mean this
figuratively, this man had a demon attached to him; it is the only way to make
sense of it all. It was triggered by the captain thinking that I was questioning or
defying his decision to leave earlier than planned due to having sick passengers on board;
volunteers, I might add. The demon inside of him knew that I was a believer and
took over the captain and went “overboard” on me; God allowed this, of course.
I had never experienced something like this before while on vacation. There is just something
about being a victim on vacation that makes it so special, so memorable! God
knew He would prompt me to write about this experience back then now.
I was thankful to God that He watched
over us as we snorkeled. I didn’t thank Him for the captain's praise (cf. 1Thes 5:18); because the more I
thought about it that night, the angrier I got with Captain Bligh and kicking
myself for letting him get away with it. We have to be very careful about the
self-talk after getting away from a negative situation; it has the usual
tendency to make you go deeper into the darkness of negativity the more you
dwell on it; it did for me because I failed to turn negative self-talk into positive
prayer, speaking to myself rather than to the Father.
Avoid making that mistake,
beloved (cf. Eph 6:12). The captain probably had more demons inside of him than I could shake
a stick at. Now, you may not agree with me that the captain had any demons at
all but was suffering from some social or psychological disorder. I get that; he
was simply devilish, and naturally, I was an angel, a classic conflict profile
in the making! After all was said and done, I did pray for his salvation after I had cooled down and returned to right thinking.
Well, here I am writing about this poor pitiful
captain. I wished I had told him that God loved him, but my guard was down, and
I wasn't up to the spiritual task. Captain Bligh came across my
radar again just the other day because I had received an email from a Christian
couple Beverly and I had met on a cruise in the Western Caribbean. We had
recommended they go snorkeling in Largo since they were going to the Keys but
charter a small boat and avoid the big ones (I thought of Captain Bligh but
never mentioned him). They loved it.
Now Captain Bligh resurfaced in my mind in Cleveland, Tennessee. I guess for me Key Largo will always be
associated with Captain Bligh, along with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall (no
I am not dating myself); I just know
these things! I suppose the point of sharing this with you is to remind us that
with any vacation getaway in the future, barring the LORD’s return, there are plenty
of demons waiting to take shots at us, even in “paradise.” Why, because we
belong to the LORD, their enemy. Stay on high alert; for the threat of demonic
terrorism is a clear and present danger. Remember this Christian travel tip.
Take more money; carry fewer clothes; and above all, be sure to take your armor
with you on vacation because those bad guys are in “paradise,” too (Eph 6:11)!
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