Pride and Courage: A Parable

I'm recently read a good book called Endurance, by Alfred Lansing. It is about the British explorer Earnest Shackleton, who led three epic expeditions to the Antarctic. The Endurance was the name of his ship that was crushed in the ice packs and the book tells of  his daring adventure trying to get back home.

There was a point where the men were getting a little self-confident in their perilous condition and just sure that everything was all going to be just fine. They had been stranded on an iceberg for months and they had escaped doom so many times already and had gotten a little use to the daily routine of life on the berg, they became self complaisant. I'll paraphrase the parable he told to caution his crew against their overestimating their abilities.

There was once a mouse who made his way into a tavern. The mouse found an open barrel of beer and drank and drank. When he had had his fill, he sat up, twirled his whiskers and said "Now. Where's that cat!"

The mouse got away with sneaking into the tavern. The mouse got away with drinking the beer. Now he looks for the cat.

Don't confuse God's long-suffering patience for invincibility.