Survival

In the charred landscapes left behind by the Los Angeles wildfires, a persistent sign of life has transfixed locals: trees. On lots where houses have been reduced to piles of rubble and cars to mangled metal husks, trees rise. These surviving oaks, pines and orange trees are often the only remaining landmarks in a neighborhood, bittersweet reminders of a time before so much tragedy.

The trees’ survival was a curiosity to many. Shouldn’t they have burned alongside homes?

The trees survived because they are filled with water: The roots draw moisture from soil and transport it through branches to its leaves. When the fires erupted in January, trees in Los Angeles had been especially nourished after two previous rainy winters. All that water makes burning a living tree akin to trying to start a campfire with wet logs.

Possible Preaching Angles:

The trees’ survival in the aftermath of wildfire is a living parable of biblical truths: resilience through adversity, the life-giving power of being rooted and nourished, and the hope that endures even when all else is lost. 1) Final Judgment; Judgment Day – Only believers will be able to stand in the day of judgment because we have the indwelling Christ and his righteousness; 2) Endurance; Hope; Perseverance - The Bible often uses the imagery of trees enduring through drought to represent steadfastness and life in the midst of hardship (Psa. 1:2-3; Jer. 17:7-8).

In August 1914, a British scientist and explorer set out from England with a crew of 28 men, intent on accomplishing a spectacular goal: crossing the whole continent of Antarctica coast to coast on foot. The explorer’s name was Sir Ernest Shackleton, and his ship was called the Endurance. Shackleton and his crew never made it to the continent; instead, the Endurance got stuck in pack ice, and eventually sank. The crew was forced to abandon ship.

What followed is one of the most harrowing survival stories of the twentieth century. They spent months floating on ice flows in the Southern Ocean, then their months on a barren, uninhabited island about 800 miles away from civilization, then Shackleton’s desperate journey across those 800 miles of treacherous sea in a lifeboat to South Georgia Island, and then finally a 36-hour-long trek across the mountains and glaciers of South Georgia to arrive at a whaling port. In all, from the moment the Endurance had gotten stuck in pack ice to Shackleton’s arrival at the whaling port, it had been 492 days. Miraculously, not one of the 28 men lost their life.

Shackleton wrote his book in 1919 not only to record their scientific discoveries and retell their wild adventures of survival, but also to express his profound gratitude and admiration for those involved in his rescue.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Testimony; Witness - What we see in Shackleton’s story is the same thing we see throughout the Bible, and the same thing we feel in our own hearts: rescue stories demand to be shared. When we receive a radical rescue, our hearts demand a response. How can we respond to the rescue we have received from God?

Actress Angelina Jolie claims, “I don’t really have … a social life.” Instead, she admits, “I realized my closest friends are refugees. Maybe four out of six of the women that I am close to are from war and conflict.”

She explained what refugees have to offer that the shallowness of Hollywood does not offer:

There’s a reason people who have been through hardship are also much more honest and much more connected, and I am more relaxed with them. Why do I like spending time with people who’ve survived and are refugees? They’ve confronted so much in life that it brings forward not just strength, but humanity.

Possible Preaching Angles:

Angelina Jolie may not be a follower of Jesus, but she does have some biblical truth here—suffering can make us deeper and more compassionate people.

In the dead of night at the heart of the Colombian jungle, army radios crackled to life with the message the nation had been praying for: "Miracle, miracle, miracle, miracle." The military code revealed that four children missing in the jungle for 40 days had all been found--alive.

The youngsters, all members of the indigenous Huitoto people, had been missing since the light plane they were travelling in crashed into the Amazon on May 1, 2023. The tragedy killed their mother and the two pilots and left the children--aged 13, nine, four, and one--stranded alone in an area teeming with snakes, jaguars, and mosquitos.

Rescuers initially feared the worst, but footprints, partially eaten wild fruit and other clues soon gave them hope that the children might be alive after they left the crash site looking for help. Over the next six weeks, the children battled the elements in what Colombia's President Gustavo Petro called "an example of total survival which will remain in history."

If there were ever children well-prepared to tackle such an ordeal, the Mucutuy family were the ones. Huitoto people learn hunting, fishing, and gathering from an early age, and their grandfather told reporters that the eldest children were well acquainted with the jungle.

Speaking to Colombian media, the children's aunt said the family would regularly play a “survival game” together growing up. She recalled, “When we played, we set up little camps. Thirteen-year-old Lesly knew what fruits she can't eat, because there are many poisonous fruits in the forest. And she knew how to take care of a baby.”

After the crash, Lesly built makeshift shelters from branches held together with her hair ties. She also recovered fariña, a type of cassava flour, from the wreckage of the Cessna plane they had been travelling in. The children survived on the flour until it ran out and then they ate seeds. The fruit from the avichure tree, also known as milk tree, is rich in sugar and its seeds can be chewed like chewing gum.

But they still faced significant challenges surviving in the inhospitable environment. Indigenous expert Alex Rufino said the children were in “a very dark, very dense jungle, where the largest trees in the region are.” In addition to avoiding predators, the children also endured intense rainstorms.

John Moreno, leader of the Guanano group in the south-eastern part of Colombia where the children were brought up, said they had been "raised by their grandmother," a widely respected indigenous elder. He said, “They used what they learned in the community, relied on their ancestral knowledge in order to survive.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

It is the duty of parents and the church community to train up children to survive and thrive in the hostile environment of the world. It is literally “a jungle out there” for our children and they must be prepared when they are young.

Sometimes the things that seem inconsequential can end up making a huge difference. When Eyal and Sara Nir moved into the Champlain Towers South with two of their six children, they had a choice between a penthouse unit and one on the first floor. Sara liked the first-floor unit better, so that’s the one they picked. Because of that one choice, along with several other routine choices, the family narrowly avoided death.

That’s because during the early morning hours of June 24 the Champlain Towers South suffered a devastating building collapse, killing at least 97 people. Eyal was out of town, but Sara and her children Gabe and Chani were home, and happened to be awake. Regular night owl Gabe had just returned from the gym, and noted that the whole family was out of their regular routine. Gabe said, "For some reason, we all were doing things later than usual. And my mom decided to stay later at her event, my sister decided to come back home late [from babysitting].”

It was nearly 1am when all three of them made it home and Gabe heard what sounded like construction noises, unusual for the middle of the night. This prompted their mom to talk to a security guard. Gabe said, "As soon as she goes down to the front, I hear this loud rumble. Like, you feel like an earthquake is happening right in front of you,”

As he and his mother and sister ran from the scene, Gabe dialed 911 and began describing the scene as the ground opened up and started swallowing everything whole. Gabe feels a sense of gratitude for their survival. “There's got to be a reason we came back later. And I feel like fate really — God really came and saved us.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Even in times of calamity and disaster God is still present and can still protect us. It doesn't mean we're automatically insulated from any negative experience, but it does mean that we never walk alone, and God's power is present in us to endure whatever we face.

Eva Kor and her sister Miriam were the subjects of horrific experiments at the hands of Josef Mengele at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. In 1995, Eva returned to Auschwitz for the 50th anniversary of their liberation. She asked Dr. Hans Munch (who signed death certificates at the camp) to join them and sign an affidavit acknowledging what happened. Dr. Munch agreed.

Eva explains what happened afterwards:

I was so glad that I would have an original document witnessed and signed by a Nazi … to add to the historical collection of information we were preserving for ourselves and for future generations. I was so grateful that Dr. Munch was willing to come with me to Auschwitz and sign that document about the operation of the gas chambers, and I wanted to thank him. But how can one thank a Nazi doctor?

For ten months I pondered this question. All kinds of ideas popped into my head until I finally thought, how about a simple letter of forgiveness from me to him? Forgiving him for all that he has done? I knew immediately that he would appreciate it, but what I discovered once I made the decision was that forgiveness is not so much for the perpetrator, but for the victim. I had the power to forgive. No one could give me this power, and no one could take it away. That made me feel powerful. It made me feel good to have any power over my life as a survivor.

In an interview before her death, Eva shared: “If I had discovered forgiveness sooner, I would have had that 50 years of my life back. Forgive. See the miracle that can happen.”

In the depths of World War II, Swedish authorities decided their citizens needed to know what to do if the fighting finally arrived on their doorstep. Though they maintained neutrality, it was hard to believe they could continue to do so—especially as their Nordic neighbors got caught in the tides of violence. So, they decided on a handy pamphlet, delivered to households across Sweden. Roughly translated to "If War Comes," the pamphlets offered tips for how to interpret sirens and what to take along in the case of evacuation.

The pamphlets didn't end with the war. For more than four decades, Sweden distributed these little bits of instruction on catastrophe—until the end of the Cold War seemed to diminish their usefulness and they were discontinued. Now, Sweden is bringing them back.

The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency is organizing a reboot of the pamphlet, this time augmenting its advice on conventional warfare with tips on how to grapple with threats of this era: terrorism and cyberattacks, pandemics, misinformation campaigns, and crises related to climate change.

The agency expects to deliver these pamphlets to 4.7 million Swedish households. A spokesman for the agency said, “Back then the focus was only on war; today society looks totally different. There are considerably more complex threats. People need to learn more and know more about how to handle … their own and their nearest relatives’ fundamental needs for a while.”

Parents and other family members are rejoicing after a three-year-old survived a life-threatening scare.

Police in Stamford responded to the Fairfield Apartments after onlookers reported seeing a small child fall out of a 2nd-story window overlooking the parking lot. According to Stamford Police Sgt. Brian Butler, the child was found after her fall crying and moving around. She survived by landing in a patch of fresh mulch, a feat made all the more impressive considering the considerable height involved. Although it was only a second-story apartment, the architecture of the property meant the window was more like four-to-five stories high.

Butler said the girl was being attended to be two family members, one of which has a partial disability of sight. The fall triggered an investigation with the Department of Children and Families.

The child was taken to Stamford Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, where she's listed in stable condition.

Potential Preaching Angles: With God, a miracle is always possible. When there is life and growth, calamity can be absorbed.

Larry Parsley convincingly writes on the need to recognize our limitations:

Henry Worsley, a former British army commando and then Arctic explorer, was obsessed with his leadership hero, the Arctic explorer Earnest Shackleton. Worsley (who once spent the night sleeping near his hero's grave) adopted Shackleton's creed: "By endurance we conquer."

But despite his fame and heroism, Shackleton was in many ways a broken man. He emerged physically broken after Captain Robert Scott's 1902 retreat from his polar expedition. In 1906, Shackleton led his own valiant yet unsuccessful journey toward the South Pole, eventually ordering a retreat to save the lives of his men.

Worsley's obsession with endurance pushed him beyond his previous milestones. He had internalized a line from a James Elroy Flecker poem: "always a little further … a little further." And so, at the age of 55, Worsley set off for what he hoped would be an 80-day solo journey. He endured temps of minus-40 degrees Fahrenheit, was often disoriented, windblown, dodging deadly crevasses, all the while pulling a sled nearly double his own weight. After covering over 900 miles in a little over two months, Worsley's body became battered by various illnesses, dehydration, and sheer exhaustion. Just 30 miles from his goal, a defeated Worsley radioed for an airlift. Sadly, his body was by then too far gone, and he passed away from organ failure before his wife Joanna could see him.

It is easy to lionize Worsley, who seemed to have near superhuman discipline, but a recent article about Worsley in the New Yorker magazine observes:

In his diary, he [Worsley] had written, "Never, ever give in." It echoed a lesson from one of the Shackleton self-help books, which Worsley had once posted on his Web site: "Never give up—there's always another move."

But maybe that was wrong. Hadn't Shackleton survived because he had realized that, at a certain point, he had no more moves and turned back? Unlike Scott and others who went to a polar grave, Shackleton reckoned with his own limitations and those of his men. He understood that not everything, least of all the Antarctic, can be conquered. And that within defeat there can still be triumph—the triumph of survival itself.

At some point in our lives the real key is not "always a little further." At some point we need to hear "Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden." Real power lies in surrender, admitting our weakness and limitations and trusting the power of the Holy Spirit.

Science writer Hope Jahren shares an interesting fact about plants, especially how a tiny seed starts to put down roots—the most essential thing for a plant's survival. She writes,

No risk is more terrifying than that taken by the first root. A lucky root will eventually find water, but its first job is to anchor … Once the first root is extended, the plant will never again enjoy any hope of relocating to a place less cold, less dry, less dangerous. Indeed, it will face frost, drought, and greedy jaws without any possibility of flight.

She calls taking root a big "gamble," but if the seed takes root it can go down twelve, thirty, forty meters. The results are powerful. The tree's roots can "swell and split bedrock, and move gallons of water daily for years, much more efficiently than any pump yet invented by man." If the root takes root, then the plant becomes all but indestructible: "Tear apart everything aboveground—everything—and most plants can still grow rebelliously back from just one intact root. More than once. More than twice."

Possible Preaching Angles: In the same way, every Christian needs to put down his or her roots into the soil of Christ's love. Or we need to put down roots into the soil of relationships—with a church family or in a marriage.

You've probably heard the saying, "He was in the wrong place at the wrong time." That can be said emphatically of the Japanese man Tsutomu Yamaguchi. On August 6, 1945, just before the end of World War II, Yamaguchi, a maritime engineer, was in Hiroshima, Japan, on a business trip. At 8:15 in the morning, he heard a bomber fly over the city. Suddenly there was a great flash of light, and he was blown over by a powerful force. A U.S. bomber had dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, which killed some 140,000 people. Yamaguchi was not one of them, for he survived the blast, though his face and arms were burned. He also suffered temporary blindness, and his hearing was damaged.

He stayed in Hiroshima that night, and the next day, Yamaguchi was able to travel to return to his home city. His home city was 190 miles southwest of Hiroshima. His home city was Nagasaki. Those well-versed in history know that on August 9th, three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, a U.S. bomber dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Again Yamaguchi saw a great flash of light, and the building he was in was blown over. He was knocked unconscious, but was not seriously hurt. This atomic explosion killed some 70,000 people. Once again, however, Yamaguchi was not one of them. Again he lived through an atomic blast.

Interestingly, he is not the only one to have lived through the horrific experience. Although approximately 210,000 died in the bombings, some 260,000 people actually survived the blasts, including 165 people who, like Yamaguchi, were believed to have survived the deadly bombings in both cities. Still, Yamaguchi was the only person officially recognized by the Japanese government as having lived through both.

The man who survived two atomic bombs and the potential delayed effects of radiation poisoning survived the lesser perils of daily life for another 65 years. But even he could not cheat death forever. In the year 2010, at age 93, Yamaguchi finally succumbed to the stubborn, unyielding, implacable power of death. What two atomic bombs could not do, old age did.