"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance" (James 1:2–3). Nobody chooses hard times. Yet challenges often reveal what we are made of, and what holds us steady.
These two stories about challenges, retold in our own words, come from a river in Alabama and a cliff above the sea. Each ends with a takeaway for sermons or reflection.
Stories in this collection:
- Up and Under: The Tugboat That Came Out the Other Side
- Teaching Eaglets to Fly: The Fall That Teaches Us to Soar
Up and Under: The Tugboat That Came Out the Other Side
In 1979 a towboat called the Cahaba was working on the Tombigbee River in Alabama in the United States. The river was running high and fast after heavy rain.
As the pilot approached a railway bridge, he released the coal barges he had been pushing. Then he threw his powerful twin engines into reverse to pull the boat away from the bridge.
But as the tug drifted slightly off line, the swirling current caught it and swung it sideways. It slammed into the bridge. The force of the water was so great that it pushed the boat right down beneath the surface and under the bridge.
Onlookers watched in horror, certain that the boat and its crew were lost.
Then, to their astonishment, the Cahaba popped back up on the far side of the bridge. It came up the right way, upright, with its engines still running and the pilot still at the wheel.
How could that happen? The answer lay deep inside the boat. Its hull was lined with a thick layer of concrete ballast, close to a metre deep. That heavy weight low in the boat meant that, however violently it was thrown about, it would always right itself.
It is a vivid picture of the challenges of life. Sometimes everything goes horribly wrong. The current is too strong, we lose control, and we are pushed under by circumstances we never chose. What matters then is not how strong we look on the surface, but what we carry deep within us. With the right ballast, faith in Christ who holds us, we can come through and emerge upright on the other side.
Takeaway: "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair... struck down, but not destroyed" (2 Corinthians 4:8–9). Build your life on deep foundations before the storms come.
Source: Widely reported account of the towboat Cahaba, 1979.
Teaching Eaglets to Fly: The Fall That Teaches Us to Soar
A reflection by Scott Higgins. The idea that mother eagles push their chicks out of the nest is a popular picture rather than a scientific description. Young eagles usually leave the nest themselves after many days of practising with their wings, encouraged by their parents. We share it here as a parable.
One of the most inspiring sights in nature is an eagle in flight. Against an endless expanse of blue, it spreads its huge wings and glides across the sky, majestic and graceful, free, powerful and complete.
No wonder the eagle has become a symbol of how we would like to live. We all want to soar like an eagle.
But how does an eagle learn to soar? The story often told goes like this. High on the face of a cliff above the sea, an eagle builds its nest. There the chick hatches, and for its first weeks it watches its mother come and go, catching food and bringing it back to the nest.
Then one day, the story says, the mother decides it is time. She forces her way into the nest and pushes her chick over the edge.
The young bird plunges down the cliff face, terrified and shocked, its heart racing, sure that death is only seconds away. And then something amazing happens. Instinctively, it stretches out the wings it did not know it had. The plunge becomes a fall, the fall becomes a glide, and the glide becomes a gentle rise. Soon the young eagle is soaring like its mother.
In that split second of terrifying danger, the chick comes face to face with itself, and with a wider world. It discovers what it really is. Without that frightening moment, it would never have learned to fly.
Many of the challenges we face feel like being pushed out of the nest. We would never choose them. But they can become the moments when we discover strength we did not know we had, and learn to rely on the God who promises to carry us.
Takeaway: "Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles" (Isaiah 40:31). Moses described God as an eagle that spreads its wings to catch its young (Deuteronomy 32:11).
Source: Reflection by Scott Higgins.
Final thoughts
A tugboat forced under a bridge and an eaglet over the edge of a cliff. Both remind us that challenges need not destroy us, and that God can use them to make us stronger.
For related stories, see our stories about perseverance and stories about suffering.
What challenge are you facing right now, and what is your ballast?
More stories you may like:
These stories are retold in our own words for teaching and reflection. Sources are credited under each story.
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