Semper Paratus

 August 22, 2023

“Semper Paratus,” “Always Prepared.” It’s the official Coast Guard motto, but it’s their unofficial motto that grabs my attention. I’ve been reading “The Finest Hours,” a true story of what’s been called the Coast Guard’s most daring rescue. It took place off the coast of Cape Cod in February, 1952 when two aging oil tankers broke in two in a raging winter storm that produced 70ft waves. I learned their unofficial motto while reading this riveting account of a few men in two thirty foot boats risking their lives for the crewmen trapped in the floating coffins of what was left of their ships.

The Church of Jesus Christ could do worse than to adopt this unofficial motto for ourselves: “You have to go out. You don’t have to return.” We have grown so comfortable in our faith, lulled into a drowsiness that assures us all is well so long as we face no difficulties in life. We’ve lost the evangelistic fervor that captivated St. Paul and the other apostles, the passion of men like Wycliffe, Wesley, Moody, and Spurgeon to see the lost found, the dying saved. We can be brought to tears at the artificial emotions of an actor or actress, while remaining completely unmoved by the cries of little girls bought and sold for the pleasure of evil men, or the addict slowly dying one fix at a time. 

We don’t even go out, let alone allow ourselves to be concerned with coming back. God help us! This book isn’t Scripture; it hasn’t the inspiration of the Holy Spirit behind it, but it is a challenge to me to examine my heart and ask, “If a Coast Guardsman is willing to live and die by such a mantra, why not me as a Christian?” It’s a proper and hard question to which I have yet to come up with a good answer. How about you?