I Always Remember That Ladder

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
Romans 10:9

Saved? Saved.

When I was a teenager I was bulletproof…remember those days? We would do daring, stupid things and take way too many chances.
One hot summer day we walked out onto a pier to go fishing. It must have been 90 degrees in northern Michigan and the lake was unusually calm.

Four of us stood there, 15 feet above the water, casting line after line into Lake Huron with no bites.

Bored, I set my pole down and stood staring at that clear, green water below. It looked so inviting.
So refreshing. So peaceful.
About 50 yards back toward the shore I saw a ladder mounted to the metal sea wall.

I’m jumping in and swimming back to the ladder to climb out, I thought.
I’ll escape the heat, impress my friends and the girls, cure my boredom, and have a cool story to tell everyone.

“I’m jumping in,” I said.
They said I was crazy.
They were right.
I jumped in.

First thing: I didn’t realize how far down it was to the water…15 feet.
Second thing: I didn’t realize how cold the water would be.
Third thing: I didn’t realize how deep the water was, or how deep I would plunge beneath the surface. I plunged deep into twenty feet of water.
Fourth thing: I’d never done anything crazy around water before.
Fifth thing: I didn’t know how to swim other than on my back and kicking my feet like a motorboat.

Just when this dumb teenager broke the surface of the water gasping for air, the Mackinaw Island ferry came blasting by the pier leaving a rolling wake.
That wake came into the channel where I was floundering and began to churn like a washing machine. It pushed me toward the pier where I hung on with hands and feet, getting cut to ribbons by rust and barnacles.

(Side note: I don’t know where the Asian tourists came from, but I distinctly remember them looking down at me and pointing anxiously. I waved up at them to assuage their fears, then one of my friends quickly escorted them off the pier.)

There was a steel ladder folded up and out of reach beside me, but thankfully my friend had a toolkit in his car. He removed the bolt and dropped the ladder down into the water with a squeaky crash and a splash that I’ll NEVER forget.
I’ll never forget that ladder.

I climbed out of that churning canal absolutely exhausted.
I sat on the pier shaking from holding on for so long. I had nearly drowned myself.
How dumb was THAT?

That’s every human being.
“I’m going to do this and I’m going to do that and people will be really impressed with ME.”
Many times our “bright ideas”, like our sins, can get us in over our head…and the devil will gladly come by with a wake to churn up your consequences…
but Jesus offers a ladder of salvation.

Saved? I’m saved!
I confess Jesus Christ as my Savior.
I believe that God raised Him from the dead.
I’m glad He dropped a ladder down into my dark, failing, flailing life.
Grab His ladder and don’t let go.
You’ll never forget it.

Eternal thanks to Clifford Lemon, who wrenched that rusty ladder loose and dropped it down to save my life.