Acts 27
The Storm Everyone Saw Coming
"Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also." (Acts 27:10)
Paul told them not to sail. The centurion listened to the captain instead. They sailed. The storm hit. The ship was driven for two weeks across the Adriatic. They threw the cargo overboard. They threw the tackle overboard. They gave up hope of being saved.
And then Paul stood up and said: you should have listened to me. But here’s what God told me last night. Not one of you will die. We’re going to run aground on an island. Take heart.
He was right, both about the storm and about survival.
What I find striking is that Paul wasn’t bitter when he stood up. He was honest about being right, and then immediately moved to what mattered: the word God had given him. He didn’t linger in the I told you so. He got to the encouragement as fast as he could.
In our lives, things sometimes go wrong in a way that was avoidable. Perhaps someone didn’t take wise counsel and the consequences landed on you. The temptation in those moments is to nurse the correctness. To let the I told you so become a slower form of punishment.
Paul named it and moved on. There was too much work to do.
