Mayday! Mayday!

When I reference “mayday,” I’m not thinking of a holiday of any day on the calendar. Very candidly, it is a term that I hope I never hear in a real-life situation.

If you were on a plane or a ship, you would not want to hear the pilot or the ship captain crying aloud, “Mayday, mayday!” It is a universal distress signal in voice procedure radio communication that indicates the plane or the ship is in big trouble.

As I look out across “the fruited plains” of North America, I cannot help but raise my voice with an urgent “mayday.”

As I listen to the garbled voices from our major cities, it seems to me that somebody should be sounding a “mayday” alarm.

As a handful of folks gather at church on Sunday, oh, my, am I out of line to take to the microphone with a “mayday”? It is here that all the trouble began. When a church defaults on its scripturally mandated duty, it withers away. The result is soon obvious in the homes and on the streets all over town.

Any­time a church goes down, a lot of people go down with it.

It is not only the keys to eternity that are in the hands of the church folks, but those same keys open and close a lot of doors in the here and now.

When the pulpit is dull, dry and without fire, the preacher needs to declare a “mayday.”

So when the altars at church are barren, it is time to sound a “mayday.”

When the baptistry is a storage closet for Christmas decorations, it is a “mayday” situation.

When soul winning is no longer happening, the alarm of “mayday” should be sounding.

When church is about “me, my wife, my son and daughter—us four, no more,” the cry of “mayday” should be sounded out.

When the buses and vans are sitting idle on Sunday, somebody should speak up with a “mayday.”

When the courts are full and the pews are empty, it is “mayday” time.

I hear the excuses and I know that we are living in times unlike anything we have had in our lifetime. I know the Devil is on a tear, but I also know we can put him on the run. The Gospel still works, if we work it. The Bible is still true, whether or not people believe it. The old-time religion (New Testament anchored) is still what’s needed everywhere.

When the Bible says, “It is high time to awake out of sleep” (Rom. 13:11), it is the same as saying “mayday.”

So here in the month of May, let’s wake up, get up, stand up, rise up, show up and never give up until we go up.

Amen? My friends, let’s do it. Amen!