Happy Columbus (and Thanksgiving) Day!
Monday, October 12, 2026
“We are not true to our profession of being Christians if we question the summons of our Leader and Commander.” – C.H. Spurgeon
Today is Columbus Day in the United States and Thanksgiving Day in Canada.
Christopher Columbus (Cristoforo Colombo) was born sometime between August 25th and October 31st in 1451, in what was known as the Republic of Genoa. An Italian sailing under the Spanish flag, he led four different trans-Atlantic expeditions to the New World, earning the title “Admiral of the Ocean Sea”. His voyages served as the first known European contact with the Caribbean and Central and South America.
What spurred Columbus to venture across the Atlantic Ocean to an uncharted land is anyone’s guess, but late in his life he offered some clues. Growing more religious as he aged, Columbus claimed that the conversion of the natives to Christianity was one of his primary motivations. With the help of his son Diego, an adopted Lucayan from Guanahani (present-day San Salvador), and his friend the Carthusian monk Gaspar Gorricio, Columbus even wrote a book in 1505 titled The Book of Prophecies, in which passages from the Bible were used to place his explorations in the context of end-times prophecy.
Who knows for sure whether Columbus sailed from Spain on a “mission trip” for the purpose of evangelizing the lost. However, I can tell you exactly why I left a secure job as a department head at a Christian retirement community on December 31, 1993. Simply put, I was answering “the summons of our Lord and Commander”, as Charles Spurgeon put it in today’s quote. God’s call to full-time prison ministry was irresistible and unmistakable, and so was His timing. All I did – with Deanna by my side – was obey my Master’s marching orders.
Over the past 33 years, I had done my best to be sensitive to His leading and to follow His voice, whether He was calling me to run for Congress in New Jersey in 2008 and 2010 or to relocate to Florida in 2011 to launch Risk Takers for Christ. Today, at age 67, I still try my best to listen for His still, soft voice each and every day.
After all, He called Moses to a new challenge at the age of 80, and Caleb to the most physically and spiritually demanding adventure of his life when he was 85. I wonder what is in store for me – and YOU – next?
“Behold, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19 (BSB)
- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President
