Pool Walking

It’s incredibly hot out there these days. I am used to warm tropical weather, but Baltimore’s humidity is definitely unbearable. Despite this, summer is a great season. Sunny days, clear skies, vacation time! Sounds like a great time to go swimming in the pool.

A couple of weeks ago I went swimming with a friend, and by the time we were by the pool side I randomly asked him to try walking over the water. He decided to ignore my suggestion and jumped into the water instead.

"Why didn’t you at least try it?," I asked.

"Are you crazy?," he replied.

His answer was completely logical; it’s the expected reaction to those type of questions. Knowing that you'll get wet is one of those absolute things in life: every time you try to walk over unfrozen water you get wet, every time you try to fly without help you fall, every time you try to fight your temptations by yourself you end up doing them over and over again. There is no point in trying again. Every time you fall it hurts more. Even before starting you know it’s going to fail.

Matthew 12:22-33 shares with us an interesting story. Take a minute and read it completely. A friend of mine told me that the disciples had been rowing for almost 8 hours on a trip that usually took one hour to complete. They were frustrated and powerless, the wind was blowing in the opposite direction, the waves were tossing the boat, their forces were exhausted. Anything that could’ve gone wrong went wrong.

That sounds very familiar. There are moments in life when - despite the fact that you are rowing with all your strength - your boat doesn’t move, you give it your all but you are still in the same place. You spend all night rowing, thinking of new ways of solving your problems and things just get worse, you are still in the middle of the lake, still in the middle of the storm.

Then, in the middle of the darkness a man appeared walking over the sea. The disciples “were afraid and they cried out in fear” but the new guest in the scene turns out to be Jesus who came closer and calmed them. But here comes Peter with his impulsive behavior: “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” What? Was he insane? Had Peter not realized they were on a storm? Had he skipped the class about water´s surface tension? Who dares to attempt something openly recognized as impossible? Someone who is seeing Jesus.

You try the impossible when you're looking at the Creator. You know it’s not your strength, you know it’s not your abilities, you know you've failed and you have no other option. So look for Jesus, He is right there, in the middle of the darkness, between the waves of the storm, He has never gone far, He has always been by your side. When you recognize that Jesus is all you have, you will understand He is all you need.

When your life is a storm, when you try to row and row and you cannot reach the shore, look for Jesus, go back to him and hear his calmed voice as he calls you and says: “Come.” Then the miracle will happen. I’m sure about that.