Shackleton's Men and the City They Could Not Find

In August 1916, Ernest Shackleton stood on the deck of the Chilean tug Yelcho, scanning the frozen horizon of Elephant Island. Somewhere on that barren shore, twenty-two of his men had survived four months of unimaginable deprivation — eating seaweed and seal blubber, huddled beneath two overturned boats, not knowing if their captain would ever return.

Their ship Endurance had been crushed by Antarctic ice nearly two years earlier. They had wandered across frozen seas and desolate islands, hungry, frostbitten, their souls fainting within them. They had no city to dwell in, no harbor of refuge — only the vast indifference of the Southern Ocean.

Shackleton had attempted rescue three times before. Three times, pack ice turned him back. But on the fourth attempt, the Yelcho broke through. When his men saw the ship approaching, they wept openly. Every single man survived.

The psalmist knew this kind of deliverance. "They wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in; hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their distress."

Whoever is wise will consider this: the steadfast love of the Lord does not abandon the stranded. He breaks through the ice. He comes back a fourth time. His mercy never runs out of attempts.