Lightboat

There are three things about a light vessel.

It is not defined by its movement but by its position.  Living in a helter-skelter city in a helter-skelter age it is hard to appreciate the value of being rightly positioned rather than going at speed.  This is the curse of the church too.  We are not a denomination, we are a movement is the Baptist Union's current emphasis.  All this has a point.  But whether the point has much to do with Jesus's instruction to watch and pray is not clear to me.  

It must shine.  Our church's strap line is A Light on a Hill.  Being positioned well (at sea or on a hill) is not much use without lighting the world about us.

It mustn't sink.  If it sinks it is neither a light nor in the right position.  The Bible teaches us to stand firm.  

There is much that the Christian and the Christian Church can learn from a Light Vessel and almost nothing we can learn from a speedboat.