Are You A Siren Or A Foghorn?

L

ate one afternoon, I was stopped at an intersection waiting for the traffic light to change from red to green.  Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a piercing sound split the air above the waiting traffic.  I jumped in my seat and almost hit the car in front of me.  Even the music of my radio could not squelch the sound coming up rapidly behind me.  A quick glance in the rearview mirror confirmed what I already knew.  An ambulance was making its way up the street, barreling toward the intersection where I was waiting for my green light.

The cars behind me pulled over to the left and to the right as the sea of traffic parted to allow the ambulance through. I pulled over to the right and the ambulance whizzed by on its way to whatever emergency had summoned it.  As I watched the red and white flashing lights, the siren continued to cut through the air.  I can still hear it and feel the cold chills on my skin and the erect hairs on my arms.

Today, the sound of the siren is associated with danger and fear by all who hear it.  It is no wonder. The siren takes its name from Greek mythology.  The sirens were originally associated with the sea.  As sailors navigated their vessels through treacherous waters, the sirens would begin singing a lovely song.  So beautiful were there voices, that sailors lost their concentration.  Instead of focusing on the dangerous waters around their vessels, they focused on the lovely voices, steered toward them, and dashed their ships onto rocky shores, sinking their vessels and losing their lives.  That is how the term siren became synonymous with danger.

There is another sound associated with the seashore that also serves to warn ships of the dangers of sailing to close to shore.  The foghorn sends out a low, monotonous tone that warns ships at sea of the treacherous rocks lying in their paths.  The horns are used whenever a fog bank rolls in that obscures the lights from lighthouses and harbors on shore.  Instead of luring ships to their demise, the foghorn guides ships to safety, warning them of the dangers of coming too close to the coastline. 

The distinction between these two sounds is incredible, isn’t it?  The sirens were intent on luring ships toward shore in order to wreck them while the foghorn was used to push ships away from the shore in order to save them.  Although appealing on the surface, the sirens were deceitful and following their voices ended in destruction.  The foghorn, however, while not the loveliest of sounds, gave an accurate representation of the danger ahead and showed captains the only way to safely avoid sinking their vessels.

In his second letter to Timothy, Paul commented on the dangers of misrepresenting the gospel message.  Paul knew that eventually society would prefer to hear an appealing message, one that made them feel good about themselves, and one that gave them assurance they were on a proper heading.  But Paul knew that this message, like the sirens of Greek mythology, would lead many to a false hope and would end in spiritual shipwrecks all along life’s coastline.  His words in 2 Timothy 4:3 should give all Christians something to think about. “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”

In light of Paul’s statement, we must ask ourselves what kind of message we are sending out to a lost world.  Are we like the sirens, sending out a wonderful and lovely message that belies the dangers of life’s rocky shore?  Are we more concerned with being accepted than we are with sharing the truth of Jesus Christ?  Or are we like the foghorn, sending out a message that correctly points out the only way to safety?  In today’s world, it is much easier to be a siren than it is a foghorn; and yet, God expects us to share His truth in a straightforward way.

How would you characterize your witness for Christ today?  If your life were viewed as sending a message to a ship lost at sea would it be a message of sirens or of foghorns?  Which one represents your life today?