I Don't Know How to Walk on Water

{originally written June 6, 2014}

The storms are raging once again. I can hear the wind howling and the rain beating forcefully down. The waves are higher than I've ever seen. Then I see Jesus calling to me, but I'm afraid.  

How can I go, how can I have the faith to walk on water?

 On the hard days when I seem to fail in everything my pride tells me I'm supposed to do and be, or the times I look out on this world and wonder if I'm living up to my “potential”, I often seek guidance from the examples of my favorite Bible characters – real people who had real problems (and failures too!). The one I can't understand, however... Peter.

With his gung-ho spirit and full-out passion to follow the Lord (do you know modern-day people like that, as I do? *sigh*), sometimes I feel as if I'm messing up and missing out. Maybe I am, in a way. Or, maybe there's more to this story than at first appears. Maybe, it's not so much the attitude as it is about the faith.

We all know the story: Peter sees Jesus walking on the water and he decides he'd like to give it a try too. But just as soon as his gaze leaves the Son and hits the water, he's a drowning duck. Oh, how many times do I do the same! Over and over again...sometimes it feels as if I'll never get there; never to know that feeling of walking on the waves.

The truth is: I don't know how to walk on water.

I don't have the faith to stay afloat.

But I know my Jesus does.

I forget so many times...the real truth of every story ever written is that we will always fail! We're only one small part of something greater. Just look at the stories from Adam and Eve, to Abraham, to David and Paul; each one is covered not with failures but with God's grace!

When you and I fail, mess up, lose track of what God says is most important in life – He's right there to set us back on track again, forgive, and help us make a fresh start (just like He did with Peter, by the way). He carries us through those stormy, confusing times between faith and fear, wrong and right, yes and no.

It's Jesus who gives me the faith to stand.

It's Jesus who teaches me how to walk – and keep walking - in faith.

...Even through the storm.