Not Waving, But Drowning

<>Nobody heard him, the dead man,
But still he lay moaning:
I was much further out than you thought
And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking
And now he’s dead
It must have been to cold for him his heart gave way,
They said. <>

Oh, no, no, no, it was too cold always
(Still the dead one lay moaning)
I was much too far out all my life
And not waving but drowning.

-- Stevie Smith

Like Gaston Leroux and Robert Louis Stevenson, Stevie Smith would almost certainly have not agreed with the Christian doctrine of man’s depravity, yet this poem shows that she understood, in a limited way, humanity’s predicament. It’s reading too much into this poem (and into the works I discussed in my last post) to say they are accurate statements of man’s condition, but when read from a Christian perspective, they show that honest unbelievers really do see the futility of life without God, whether or not they state it in those terms.

Nietzsche’s pronouncement that “God is dead” caused him to despair, and this made him, in many ways, more of a clear thinker than optimistic atheists. On this point Nietzsche and Christians agree: the alternative to God (the triune God of the Bible, I would add) is despair. This is what Francis Schaeffer would call living below “the line of despair.” Humans are not waving, but drowning.

As Christians, we need to realize that there are unbelievers who are actually conscious that they are “not waving, but drowning” and that this is a resounding call to practice apologetics. Apologetics is the defense of the faith, or, the vindication of the Christian philosophy of life against all non-Christian philosophies of life. People who clearly see the hopelessness of their condition need someone to show them a viable, rational alternative. People who are not content with humanist and naturalist explanations desperately need someone to explain the truth. These people desire a vindication of the Christian philosophy of life! If someone would show them that their worldview is not true and that Christianity is, many of them would be relieved!

Both my parents became Christians as adults, after years of living in uncertainty. My mother was a true “seeker” who had experimented with nearly every type of lifestyle without finding satisfaction. My father was a hippie who lived in a commune and hitchhiked across the country to hear gurus speak (and, hopefully, levitate buildings). For both my mother and my father, the discovery that Christianity was true was an incredible revelation. They had never even considered Christianity before, simply because it never occurred to them that the Bible was anything other than a book of myths and Jewish folk stories. They knew they were “drowning,” but they didn’t know there was an alternative. What my mom and dad needed was an apologist – someone who would show the superiority of the Christian philosophy of life in relation to all others.

That’s what many, many people need. They’re dissatisfied and miserable, and if only someone would show them that there is another, better way that’s also true, they would eagerly accept Christianity. Of course, God is sovereign in these matters, and individuals do not convert people; the Holy Spirit does. We have to understand that apologetics is not a matter of explaining the right philosophy and getting automatic results. And yet, God has commanded us to be faithful to defend and explain our worldview and to remain confident that we possess the truth (1 Peter 3:15).

This is vitally important and completely practical. The question becomes, how are going to apply this? What steps are we going to take to fulfill the biblical mandate to defend the faith and to evangelize all peoples (1 Peter 3:15, Jude 6, Philemon 3, Matthew 28:19)? What are we going to do now? We shouldn’t wait to practice apologetics. Instead, we ought to seize the opportunities God has already granted us and actively pursue more. We can’t wait until we’re adults to save drowning people because they need help right now.