I took this picture on my phone. I can't even express how happy it makes me. I've always loved boats. Someday I want to own a boat like this and maybe live on it. No joke. Anyway, I grew up with boats and skiing and wakeboarding. It's kind of terrifying--skimming along on the water behind a boat knowing that at any moment you could hit a wave go crashing down (which sometimes HURTS, let me tell you). But still, it's awesome. You don't get the rush if you don't get out of the boat. Falling doesn't matter.
Sometimes God speaks to me through themes and this one has been on my mind a lot lately. It's the story of Jesus walking on the water.
It's stormy, the disciples are out in the boat and Jesus is on the shore, and then suddenly they notice something. Someone starts singing, "oh here comes Jesus, see him walking on the water..." Okay, probably not because actually they're scared to death. But then Peter (Peter, who we love because he often does and says stupid things--things that maybe WE would see ourselves doing) says "Hey, if that's you Jesus, then tell me to come out there with you." And Jesus says, "Come on in, the water's fine!" So Peter leaps out of the boat and miraculously starts walking. But then, of course, he freaks out because, you know, people aren't really supposed to walk on water. Then he starts to sink and screams for help, and Jesus grabs him and scolds him, and they get back in the boat with a really interesting story to tell at parties.
Anyway, the point of this story, as I'm usually told, is that Peter took his eyes of Jesus and he shouldn't have done that. He shouldn't have doubted. But he still gets props for getting out of the boat.
I don't disagree with this interpretation. I just think it's incomplete. See, my problem with getting out of the boat is not that I doubt Jesus...it's that I doubt myself. I don't trust myself not to look away. When have I EVER kept my eyes on Jesus consistently? It makes you not want to get out of the boat. Knowing your own inadequacy. Knowing that you'll doubt. Knowing that you'll sink...
But...that's not the point. The point isn't that Peter doubted, or that Peter started to sink. The point is that Jesus rescued him. If Peter had been more consistent in his faith, maybe he would have walked farther, longer. But eventually a moment would have come that his faith would waver. We all have those moments.
We shouldn't try to put our confidence in our own faith. We should put our confidence in Jesus's ability to save us, even from ourselves. THAT'S where the faith to get out of the boat should come from.
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