As we come to the last episode of our Lifeboat series, we reach the end of our companion book, The Stranger in the Lifeboat. Mitch Albom treats us to a surprise ending.
It was Benji who took the explosions on board the Galaxy. His goal was to kill the owner, Jason Lambert, whom he thought was the father who had rejected him. The death of everyone else was simply collateral damage.
The circumstances make Benji sound like a Psychopath. According to the staff at Psychology Today, Psychopaths lack empathy, are often callous and detached, and may be highly manipulative. Guilt, on the other hand, is a normal response to harming others. Benji felt guilty but still showed empathy towards others.
But it wasn’t Benji who sank the Galaxy. The guilt of what he planned to do was too much for Benji. The night of the explosion, Benji decided to jump off the Galaxy to commit suicide, just as three whales rammed the bottom of the yacht, leaving a huge hole.
Dr Lawrence Howells, a Clinical Psychologist, in an excerpt from his book published by the British Psychological Society, reminds us that guilt is more complicated than other emotions, “because we have to have a sense of morality, a set of standards or values we believe we should live up to.”
Psychopaths, on the other hand, are unable to process guilt in the same way as others and operate as though they have no sense of morality, standards, or values we should live up to. Psychopathy is more likely a result of genetics and more challenging to treat than guilt.
After recovering from the initial shock of Alice, the little girl, telling him that she is the Lord, Benji sat quietly, holding her hand. He wrote in his journal, “Holding her hand was like a key turning a tumbler. My body melted. My breath calmed. As the minutes passed, I seemed to get smaller. The heavens grew enormous. When a spread of glowing stars took over the sky, it drew tears from my eyes. I realized this is what it means to forgo everything and be alone with God. And I knew that I was.”
What a feeling that must have been, to know that you’re with the Lord in person. The Lord reminded Benji that every moment spent with the people we love is a precious gift, but their death is never a punishment for those left behind.
Then the Lord said, “Benjamin. I know you before you are born. I know you after you die. My plans for you are not defined by this world. And because I go on, you go on with me. Feeling loss is part of why you are on Earth. Through it, you appreciate the brief gift of human existence, and you learn to cherish the world I created for you.”
Then the Lord said, “When people leave this Earth, their loved ones always weep.” The Lord smiled and added, “But I promise you, those who leave do not.”
Benji’s story, told through his journal, helped Inspector LeFleur see the world differently and find peace despite the loss of his daughter, Patrice. “Lilly’s all right,” LeFleur tells his wife, “She’s all right. She’s safe.”
In our next series, Heaven, we’ll use one of Mitch Albom’s earlier books, The First Phone Call From Heaven, as a guide. In his novel, Albom allows us to imagine what it might be like to hear firsthand testimony from others who are in heaven.
As the companion book for this series ends, Benji’s conversation with the Lord comes to an end, as he asks, “What do I do now?” The Lord responded, “Forgive yourself. Then use this grace to spread my spirit.”
To have good fruit you must have a healthy tree.
Matthew 12:33-38
So now what? What can we do with whatever insights we learned over the past six weeks? Our companion book offers this suggestion: “Find another soul in despair. And help them.”
So now what? Now we bear good fruit. We accept the grace God offers by forgiving ourselves and others. And we share the good news of the Gospel through our words, but mostly through our actions.
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Pastor Tommy
Our series was inspired by Mitch Albom. The Stranger in the Lifeboat. New York: HarperCollins, 2021.
Psychology Today Staff. “Guilt.” © Psychology Today, 2025. Retrieved from: link
Psychology Today Staff. “Psychopathy.” © Psychology Today, 2025. Retrieved from: link
Dr Lawrence Howells. “Understanding guilt: The useless emotion?” © The British Psychological Society, November 10, 2022. Retrieved from: link