LIFEBOAT
One of the great World War II films was LIFEBOAT, about the ordeal faced by survivors of a passenger ship that was sunk by a Nazi U-Boat in the middle of the Atlantic. The film details their struggle for survival in a small lifeboat, fighting the elements, thirst and then fighting against each other. Each person has their own ideas about how to navigate the little boat: they argue about who should be in charge; and they find little things to fight over even when they run out of things to fight over. Eventually they come to understand that their only hope is in putting aside their differences and working toward the common goal of survival. They learn that they cannot possibly get the boat to safety unless they all adopt that unifying goal.
In a sense the entire world is a LIFEBOAT, and we are all like the survivors in that film. We cannot solve the great problems which confront humanity--hunger, disease and war--unless we unite in a common effort to find meaningful remedies to these plagues. It is also true in every other sphere of life, in the family and in the workplace. When people unite to achieve common goals, and are willing to give and take, and think of each other's needs...then there is no limit to the good things they can accomplish together. As Frank Purdue once said: "There's no limit to the quality you can build into a chicken". Chaplain Mitch Schranz
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