Celebrating Columbus' Faith

Hebrews 11:8  By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 

Hebrews 11:13-16 ¹³  These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
¹⁴  For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.
¹⁵  If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.
¹⁶  But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

People do interesting, and sometimes (to others) strange things by faith.  Abraham left his family and home to journey to a new land God had promised him as an inheritance.  To us in the 21st century it doesn't seem to be that big of a deal to move a few hundred miles, but a journey of that magnitude in Abraham's time meant a forever "leaving" of all that is known.  

Why do people do things like that?  How can we understand the movements of faith inside of a  human being who is responding to God?  I know a little of this personally having made the move from family some 40+ years ago in response to God's call to enter into training for full time ministry.  My family was certainly confused by that, and the response I got at the time varied between "that's foolish" to "IF you think that's what you're suppose to do, well then go for it, BUT..."  
Now that my kids have grown up I've seen that same spirit of understanding faith's risks in my children.  My son, his wife and kids moved to California this last summer to follow a similar path of preparing for vocational ministry.  Years before, my daughter moved to England to marry and has now begun her family, living 1000's of miles away.   I think if you were to ask them they both would say it was a "faith" initiated move.

BUT today, I'm focusing on another historical figure - Christopher Columbus.  It's Columbus day in the states - a holiday that is not celebrated except by the government which shuts down most operations - we've been on an extended pre-Columbus and perhaps post-Columbus holiday for this month!
Who was this man? Why did he sail "the ocean blue"?

Cristoforo Colombo (as he was known in his hometown of Genoa, Italy) was taller than most men; so tall, in fact, he couldn't stand inside his cabin on the Santa María. 

Columbus, as we know his name today, was an experienced mariner. He had sailed the Mediterranean and traveled to parts of Africa, to Ireland, and probably even to Iceland. He boasted later in life, “I have gone to every place that has heretofore been navigated. ” He knew the Atlantic as well or better than anyone, and he probably knew more about how to read currents, winds, and surfaces of the sea than do sailors today. 

“He [our Lord] has bestowed the marine arts upon me in abundance, ” Columbus said.

For nearly seven years, the “socially ambitious, socially awkward ” Italian had become a fixture at the Spanish court, ceaselessly lobbying for his crazy “enterprise of the Indies. ” A royal commission in 1490 had judged “that the claims and promises of Captain Colón are vain and worthy of rejection. . . . The Western Sea is infinite and unnavigable.” 

Yet Columbus had pressed on, proving, as he said, “If it strikes often enough, a drop of water can wear a hole in a stone.”

The textbook answer, as taught in most schools today, is that Columbus wanted to find a trade route to the Orient. 

One writer, Robert Hughes expressed the conventional wisdom: “Sometime between 1478 and 1484, the full plan of self-aggrandizement and discovery took shape in his mind. He would win glory, riches, and a title of nobility by opening a trade route to the untapped wealth of the Orient. No reward could be too great for the man who did that.”  In otherwords, Columbus was after fame and fortune.

There might be some truth in that - many a person is driven to invent or discover because of the money to be made.  But it is an incomplete answer—so incomplete it’s misleading. 

In reflecting on his voyage later, Columbus saw it in much greater terms: 

“Who can doubt that this fire was not merely mine, but also the Holy Spirit who encouraged me with a radiance of marvelous illumination from his sacred Scriptures, . . . urging me to press forward?”

Columbus felt that Almighty God had directly brought about his journey: 

“With a hand that could be felt, the Lord opened my mind to the fact that it would be possible . . . and he opened my will to desire to accomplish that project. . . . The Lord purposed that there should be something miraculous in this matter of the voyage to the Indies.”

There may be many things we don't know about history’s most famous mariner. 

We don't know exactly what Columbus looked like. We don't know the precise design of his three ships. And most bizarre of all, we don't know—and will probably never know—the spot where he came ashore.

But we know beyond doubt that Columbus sailed, in part, to fulfill a faith quest. 

Columbus’s voyages were as much faith missions, as anything else. 

He saw them as the fulfillment of a divine plan for his life—and for the soon-coming end of the world. As he put it in 1500, “God made me the messenger of the new heaven and the new earth of which he spoke in the Apocalypse of St. John [Rev. 21:1] after having spoken of it through the mouth of Isaiah; and he showed me the spot where to find it.”

That is an overstatement to say the least; but it reflects his heart, and soul, that what he did was in response to God's movements in his heart, mind, soul and spirit - his inner motivations were by faith, that is clear.

In 1501 Columbus wrote, “I am only a most unworthy sinner, but ever since I have cried out for grace and mercy from the Lord, they have covered me completely. I have found the most delightful comfort in making it my whole aim in life to enjoy his marvelous presence. ” 

Concludes Pulitzer-Prize-winning biographer Samuel Eliot Morison, “There can be no doubt that the faith of Columbus was genuine and sincere, and that his frequent communion with forces unseen was a vital element in his achievement.”

Columbus would need that vital element. The voyage was immediately beset by problems - a broken rudder, leaks so bad they needed immediate repair, and threatened capture by the Portuguese. A week after losing sight of the Canary Islands, the pilots discovered that the compasses no longer worked right. (They varied a full degree at various times of the day, because of the rotation of the North Star, which pilots had thought was fixed in its location.)

On September 23, the ship hit a calm, causing the seamen to complain they'd never be able to get back to Spain. But later, the sea rose without the aid of any wind. This “astonished them,” and Columbus compared it to the miracles that accompanied Moses.

After going a month without seeing land, the men belly-ached about the endless voyage. But on October 11, they began seeing signs of shore: seabirds, bits of green plants, stacks that looked they had been carved, a small plank. At 10 that evening, Columbus saw a faint, flickering light like a candle in the distance. Columbus instructed his men to keep careful lookout. Then the Pinta (“Painted One”), the fastest of the three ships, sailed ahead. At about 2 A.M., a crewman yelled “Tierra! ”—land.

At daylight, the wide-eyed Europeans saw people (he named them Indians because he thought he had sailed to India), and as well, many ponds, fruits, and green trees. 

But what land was this? Where was he? The natives called the island Guanahan. Columbus dubbed it San Salvador, “Holy Savior.” 

In time, the Santa Maria was destroyed, the wood used for the building of a fort; and Columbus sailed the Nina and the Pinta back to Spain.  Columbus finally returned home – months had passed and no one knew what had happened in the voyage until he returned. 

As he sailed into port, Columbus composed and sent on a letter to Ferdinand and Isabella: “Our Redeemer has given this triumph…for all of this Christendom should feel joyful and make great celebrations and give solemn thanks to the Holy Trinity...for the great exaltation which it will have in the salvation of so many peoples to our holy faith and, secondly, for the material benefits which will bring refreshment and profit.”

While most school children will learn of Christopher Columbus, I doubt if many will know that he was driven by his faith in God.  There were other motivations - we all have them - but to ignore Columbus' faith is to fail to understand why he did what he did.

It's Columbus Day - and it's worth our remembering his Christian heritage.

Peace