Walking on Water

When Peter tried to walk on water, he took his eyes off Jesus and sank. But Jesus picked him up, saying, “You have so little faith. Why did you doubt me?” (Matt. 14). Likewise, on our journey of faith, each of us is confronted by doubts—we cry out, “Lord, help me overcome my unbelief”  (Mark 9:24). Having doubts is normal. The important thing is how we handle them.

Imagine that doubt is a fork-in-the-road of faith (we'll have many of these in a lifetime). One road leads to the resolution of doubt to greater faith. The other is a dead-end of double-mindedness (James 1:8).

Double-mindedness (not doubt) was the primal sin: “I am afraid that you will be led astray from your pure and undivided devotion to Christ just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s craftiness” (2 Co. 11:3). Jesus attributes Martha's anxiety to double-mindedness while honoring Mary's singular attention on Him. (Luke 10:41-42). So, to the degree we fix our eyes on Jesus (Heb. 12:2), we will overcome troubling doubts and walk on the waters of bigger faith (Col. 3:2). Just like Peter did!

The Cure for NIMBY

Have you ever heard of a support group for “double-minded” people? Why not? Everyone struggles with this “Adam-inherited” infection of half-heartedness. You can see it politically with people who want better airport security but say “don’t touch ‘my’ junk,” or who favor reducing National debt, but not 'on the back' of their ‘entitlement’. But this is nothing new; it’s the old “Not in my backyard” attitude—for which there’s even an acronym: NIMBY. People who don’t want a half-way house or a nuclear power plant in their neighborhood, though they think it's a good idea—just not in their backyard—are NIMBY-ers.

But I think we could also personalize NIMBY as a description of double-mindedness: those who tell others what to do, but can’t seem to do it in their own backyard! And by the way, NIMBY-ers usually have a good-looking “front” yard. And there you have the problem: the difference between your front and back yard (what people see and what you know they don’t see!).

In psychology, we call this cognitive dissonance. And it’s what drives many anxious people into the therapist’s office. The Bible is replete with stories of those who suffered from the front-yard/back-yard infection, including Paul with his familiar "when I want to do good, I don't; and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway." It all started in the Garden when Satan deceived Eve, infecting her with “double-mindedness” (2 Cor. 11:3). Fortunately, ‘Dr. Paul’ prescribes the cure: “Set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God's right…let heaven fill your thoughts” (Col. 3:1-2, NLT).