Few things are as common, routine, everyday just-plain-boring as the daily commute to and from work. The five-minute ride over the East River, from Manhattan to Roosevelt Island, via cable car certainly qualified as routine (though one might except that spine-tingling moment when one looked down to the busy river hundreds of feet below).
For thirty years the two cars (trams) have carried thousands of New Yorkers and visitors every day. Just routine until a “glitch” in the power system stopped both little cars high in the air. It was 5:30 p.m., rush hour, when the cars stopped. Nothing to worry about; the backup system would guarantee a restart, and all would be home in time for dinner. But power failed there too, and the riders faced a long wait for rescue.
The police worked hard to get all the passengers down, sending up supplies and snacks and even baby formula to one car that held two babies. They began a mid-air rescue system, using a diesel powered “rescue bucket” that moved slowly along the cable line. One by one the sixty-nine passengers were helped into the bucket from the tram. “Step carefully, ma’am, and don’t look down!” It was 4:07 a.m. when the very last of the passengers was landed safely.
It was a scary break in what had seemed to be a normal day, and perhaps caused some of them to carry an extra water bottle and power bar along “just in case.” But, what if the worst happened, and the little cars had fallen into the river far below? It is unlikely there would have been any survivors, and how many were prepared for that? That sudden, shocking end to the life they had known might have found some with no thought for the life beyond.
New Yorkers, above all others, know what can happen to a routine day at work.
Remember the Twin Towers? Are the rest of us exempt? Any place, any time, is there a guarantee of safety even in the dullest of routine days? No? Then shouldn’t we take our own personal safety very, very seriously?
This does not mean personal responsibility as typified by a water bottle, snack and a cell phone. This is all-important, life-or-death, now-or-never important decision-making, and only you can do it for yourself. No one else can receive the Lord Jesus for you; no one else can confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, no one else can believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead-no one else can be saved in your place (Rom. 10:99That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9)).
The decision is yours. The destination is yours. God offers you a choice: the “blackness of darkness” forever, or light-and life-and love forever. Therefore, choose life!