Faith Matters

Dumb Words to Live By
Don Sniff, Fowler Christian Church

“I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.”

Among some of the dumber words to live by is this little ditty, which I believe, most of you have seen one time or another. They’ve even made posters with these idiotic words! Yet these words appeal to our John Wayne, American “I do my own thing, pilgrim!” attitude. So, pilgrim, you’re “the master of your own fate, the captain of your soul?” If I may be so bold, could you show me how to turn back the hands of time. You see, age and life have weathered me…I would prefer to be young again! What’s that, you can’t stop the aging process? Some master of your own fate you are, then.

   Allow me to let you in on a little secret. There are forces in this world which you can neither control nor lessen. At the very least, nature (the cosmos, the world) is an inexorable machine that grinds us humans down into the dust from which we were created. You can fight against the machine all you want…the result is always the same. Our ‘fate’, both yours and mine, is inevitable…we’re going to die one day. Some of us will die by accident, some by disease, some by war, some by our own bodies shutting down. And all the running around to prevent that, all the fearful attempts to thwart it will, in the end, prove futile. The bigger question is, “then what?” Do we continue to exist after death? And if so, where, and in what manner? The short answers are “yes, you’re going to continue to exist, but how and where will be determined by your continued rebellion to God, or your unconditional surrender to Him.

   You see, the above words about being the master of your own fate, and the captain of your soul were part of a poem written by a man in rebellion to God, specifically the God of the Bible, the “Christian” God. The author was NOT about to bend his knee, to admit that Someone was greater than himself, that Someone else controlled HIS destiny. The poem he penned, called Invictus (Latin for ‘Unvanquished” or “Unconquered”), ends with this quatrain:

“It matters not how strait [narrow] the gate,   

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.”

The Son of God, when He walked this earth, told us to “make every effort to enter through the strait [narrow] gate”, NOT to ignore the narrow gate and continue to walk in the broad path that leads to destruction.

And yes, the “Scroll” is charged with punishments, but the good news is that we don’t have to ignore the charges, we can deal with those charges against us, and get the punishment due us charged to Another. It’s too bad the author never understood the Good News…all he saw was the ‘punishments’.

Finally, I am NOT the captain of my soul: The “Captain of my salvation” already suffered, so that I wouldn’t have to (Hebrews 2:10 KJV…look it up!).

   You can continue in your rebellion, deceiving only yourself, and ultimately still be vanquished, OR you can surrender to Him (Who died for you) now and live. Your choice…but do yourself and others a favor…stop spewing out this tripe about being in control of your own fate. You’re not! Or at least show me how to reverse the aging process. It’s the pits.