Reminders: Faith Enough to Walk on Water
by Ardith Hoff
Two pastors, who liked to fish, invited a third pastor from another denomination to come fishing with them. Out on the lake, the first pastor needed to go to the bathroom. He walked on water to the restroom on shore. A while later the second pastor did the same thing. The third pastor had to go really badly, but he was a little worried that maybe his faith was not strong enough. He prayed hard and stepped out of the boat. Sure enough, he sank like a rock! He felt humiliated and swam ashore and never returned to the boat. He knew that his faith must be too weak.
Faith, according to the dictionary is, “Complete trust in someone or something.” The Bible tells us, in Hebrews 11:1 that faith is, “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Religious faith is exemplified by a belief in God, without actually seeing him, and trusting Him for what we need. So what was wrong with the third pastor’s faith?
Did he not believe strongly enough? Did he not trust God to provide the ability to walk on water? Did he somehow lose faith as he stepped out of the boat, just as the apostle Peter did in the story where Jesus walked on water, and invited his disciple Peter to do the same? In Matthew 14:29-31 it says: “Jesus was walking on water, and he said to Peter. ‘Come!’ Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him.”
If Jesus had been there in person, he might have reached out and caught the third pastor, but he was not. Though we see modern “miracles” that we can’t explain, we don’t actually take unnecessary risks, and expect Jesus to reach down and save us. We do our homework. We search for the best surgeon to operate on us; we keep our car serviced so that we can have faith that it will get us to church and back and we ask the other two fishermen where the rocks are!