One time I was returning from the Bahamas in my boat. It was a very long 260 mile trip and was rather monotonous riding along with the boat on auto pilot. The water was very smooth with little wind and we made great time. As we entered the final 82 mile stretch of our trip and began crossing the Gulf Stream, I noticed a storm on my radar screen. In the summertime it is quite common to have thunderstorms pop-up here and there especially around the warm river of water called the Gulf Stream that constantly moves in a Northerly direction.
A very large ominous looking thunderstorm was moving towards us, but it was moving about ten miles an hour and we were moving forty, and it would be no problem whatsoever to avoid it.
By this time I was bored silly from the long ride and decided to have a little fun with my buddy. The guy that went with me was a complete novice to boating and blue water fishing and knew nothing of summertime thunderstorms in the Gulf Stream. For some strange reason I decided to torment him.
I began by looking at my radar screen in earnest with a worried expression on my face. I started changing radar screens to enlarge the storm and I moved the cursor in relation to our boat and muttered to myself that this was not good. My buddy who was watching my every move nervously glanced at the dark menacing looking storm which was readily apparent off to our right and then he looked at the worried expression on my face.
As though I was responding to his unasked question I said that I didn’t see any way to avoid being caught in the storm because it was moving too fast. Then I casually said that the storm would be bad, but I was more worried about the lightning strikes than anything.
His eyes started getting big and he asked me what he was supposed to do to avoid getting hit. I told him the best advice I could give him was to pray. I then instructed him that when it began hitting all around us to get to the lowest point of the boat and curl up – I would remain at the helm and if I got hit, then he should take over. He slowly nodded his head as he envisioned that task.
Next I mentioned that these storms were always preceded by a huge “wall of water” and that it would be perhaps twenty feet high. With winds howling at forty or fifty miles an hour we would have to survive that initial hit; if we did so, we would have a chance. I looked him in the eyes and said, “Hopefully we will make it through without taking on water and sinking”.
By now his eyes were as wide as saucers, his jaw was clenched, and he had a most serious look was on his face and I could distinctly see his lips moving as he whispered prayers. I do not know what possessed me, but then I stated to him that I hated to be the bearer of yet more bad news, but something was wrong with the boat engines; (this seemed all the more plausible because my boat had been in Marsh Harbour in the Abacos for the past month getting the engines repaired whereby they had failed a month earlier on vacation. We had flown down to pick the boat up and bring it back to the Keys after it was repaired)
To make this ploy more realistic, unbeknownst to him I’d eased the throttle back a little to make it appear as though one of the engines was losing power. I pointed to the dropped RPM gauge for that engine and sadly shook my head. Then I gave him the ominous warning that if we were to lose power in this huge storm we were “goners”. I tried my best to muster a grim look and muttered, “Don’t worry John I’ll do the best I can”.
By now he was frantic and I’m sure thinking of his wife and kids back home. He disappeared for a minute and then came back donning a heavy yellow rain slicker, in spite of the fact that it was not raining and he had to be all but cooking himself in the hot sun in that heavy rubber rain suit.
As we rode he would wildly look at the engine RPM’s and then at the radar screen which I had turned to “animate” mode which made the storm appear as though it was moving directly towards us on a continuous loop. The screen detects clouds as well as rainfall and the screen was covered in bright red, purple, and black colors similar to what is seen on television weather updates and with the high clouds appeared to be stretching nearly to our boat which was readily visible on the screen. It seemed to indicate that we were heading towards certain death.
Finally after about fifty miles of this, as we began pulling away from the storm, I started laughing like a Hyena and finally told him the truth. He was not amused, but after a while he saw the humor in it and we both had a good laugh.
I thought of a Bible verse in Proverbs that states: “Do not devise evil against your neighbor”.
Was my act evil? Was this deception a work of satan?
Naw, I think it was just a little good-natured fun, but then I found the verse below and I think the Lord might be telling me something about my trying to justify my bad behavior. Selah
Proverbs 12:15
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes
August 19, 2014 – Click here to listen