Let's Walk on Water

“He said, ‘Come.’ Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus.” (Mt.14:29 NAB)

I have always loved this verse about Peter, walking on water. Imagine what the fellows back in the boat must have felt—surprise, awe, disbelief and downright hysteria. How awesome to have so much faith that you brazenly step out of a boat onto an immense sea, thinking you can blithely jog several yards to your Master. Of course we all know what happens next. Peter, realizing what he is doing, sinks into doubt, which causes him to sink into water.

Faith. To have enough faith to do the impossible would be beyond awesome. Even though Peter was walking toward Jesus and had to know Jesus wouldn’t let him flounder too long in the rolling sea, it still had to take a tremendous amount of faith just to step out of the boat. What’s even more amazing, was that he actually managed a few steps before fear took over.

I have to constantly remind myself of this. If I have faith, I, too, can do astonishing things. If I don’t have faith, if I remain in the boat, I won’t get anything accomplished. If I don’t try, for fear of failing, I won’t enjoy any successes. What a sad way to live.

Each one of us was put on this Earth to accomplish something—something only we can do. God has a definitive plan for every single person he created. One person’s job may be to find the cure for a rare disease; another’s may only be to offer a smile to a stranger who, perhaps, was contemplating suicide and swayed because of that passing smile. It can be as simple as that. And as profound.

We all need to have enough faith to “walk on water.” So what if we falter and start to sink. Jesus is right there to haul us up. Then we can try again. And again. Who knows? Our perseverance may result in our sprinting and cartwheeling across the heaving, roiling sea of doubt, fear, insecurity, loneliness and all the other flotsam, thrown out by Satan. Just think what we can accomplish. And it only requires a micro-crumb of faith. Awesome.

“…Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed…nothing will be impossible for you.” (Mt. 17:20 NAB)