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Walking On Water: Lessons In Faith And Focus

Walking On Water: Lessons In Faith And Focus

Last updated on: July 26, 2026 at 1:08 am by Henry Karlson

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Walking On Water: Lessons In Faith And Focus 2026-07-26T01:08:58-05:00 Henry Karlson

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Ted: Peter Walking on Water / flickr

We can get so caught up in the moment, we lose ourselves in it. This can be a good thing because when this happens, we are no longer focused on ourselves, and all the hopes and fears our self-attachment brings to us. For, when we are so focused on ourselves, we fail to look beyond ourselves, we fail to carefully see what is happening around us, leading us to ignore those who are in need of some help which we can (and should) provide. On the other hand, we can find, when we detach ourselves from ourselves and live in the moment, we can end up doing extraordinary things. We are no longer enclosed in a prison of our self-making, that is the prison of the self (or rather, the false sense of self we construct for ourselves and try to preserve at all costs), which tells us we cannot do extraordinary things because they are impossible. That is, we avoid doing things which seem out of the ordinary, things which we claim are impossible, whether or not they are. When, however, we get beyond that self-made prison,when we let our thoughts and beliefs about ourselves, and what we can do, die instead of trying to keep them going, we end up surprising ourselves, as we end up doing far more than we thought possible. However, when we do such things, we must be careful; we can find ourselves once again bringing our attention back to ourselves, questioning ourselves and what we are doing, creating doubts which bring everything to a halt. Indeed, we can end up undermining any advances we have made, and have everything we have done come crashing down upon us. Faith works like this. Faith is meant to acted upon, and through that action, we are to lose sight of ourselves and let the Spirit guide and direct us. If we do so, our faith can move mountains, achieving miracles. However, we once we do so, we can once again start questioning ourselves, letting our old views of the self get in the way, returning us to, and even reinforcing, our self-made prison. Yes, we need to question ourselves so that we do not become vainglorious or prideful, but to do that, we need to be humble, detached from ourselves. The questions being mentioned here are not about humility but about questioning if we can do what God expects from us, leading us to doubt not only the prompting of the Spirit, but our faith. Those questions end up dragging us down, which is what we are meant to learn with the story of Peter when he found himself walking on water:

Then he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was many furlongs distant from the land, beaten by the waves; for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear. But immediately he spoke to them, saying, “Take heart, it is I; have no fear.” And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus; but when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me” (Matt. 14:22-30 RSV).

We must be careful when we talk about faith. We must not misunderstand what faith is, thinking it is about belief without reason, that is, we must not confuse faith with an irrational belief. Everyone who has faith has some kind of evidence they use to justify their faith. It is true, they might misunderstand the evidence, or come to illogical conclusions, but that is not the problem with faith, but the person and how they engage their faith. While some people have better reasons for their faith than others, everyone with faith should have a faith which seeks a greater, better, understanding of what they believe, exploring it in a variety of ways, including, and especially, through the use of their reason. Faith is concerned with the way we act upon our beliefs; are we being faithful to them and their implications, or do we just see our faith as a mental exercise without any implication on the way we live? The Christian faith should have us doing things which surprise us, things we never expected we would be doing, such as working in food banks, helping build homes for the homeless, or standing up for the rights of migrants and refugees; if we act on our faith, we will find, despite ourselves and our limitations, we will do some good, perhaps a great deal of good, perhaps even a miraculous amount, but it would not happen if we do nothing.

Thus, the Christian faith should motivate us, both to seek for a greater understanding what it is we believe, but also, to live out what we believe. If we do nothing, our faith is not a living faith, it is dead. On the other hand, if we act on it, even a little, we can move beyond ourselves, beyond self-attachment, and find ourselves doing that which we never thought we could do. No, this does not mean that we likely will be walking on physical water; but we can be found overcoming the flood of hate, walking on the water of hope.

As Christians, our faith must always be in Christ, and what he taught, even if his teachings seem hard or impossible to follow because they go against the “common sense” expectations of “the world.” Promoting the poor over the rich, the outcast over the powerful, the exploited over the exploiters, refugees over xenophobes, all presents difficult challenges for us, especially if we live in a society which tries to use the Christian name and promote with it the opposite of what Christ taught. The challenge is real, but with faith, with fidelity to Christ, if we act, we can bring about changes, sometimes small, sometimes temporary, but nonetheless changes which will help someone, making their lives better. And history has shown, time and time again, sometimes those changes become greater, far greater than we could ever expect, such as happened with abolition. Once those changes take effect, we must not get complacent; we must continue to act in faith lest what we established is taken down and destroyed by the powers that be, just as Peter, once he focused on what he was doing, lost his faith and fell into the water. When that happens, we must pick ourselves up and start over, or rather, we must let Christ pick us up and help us start again, looking to him to save us, so that once we are lifted out of the waters of despair, we can get back on the path of faith, living it out once again.

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N.B.: While I read comments to moderate them, I rarely respond to them. If I don’t respond to your comment directly, don’t assume I am unthankful for it. I appreciate it. But I want readers to feel free to ask questions, and hopefully, dialogue with each other. I have shared what I wanted to say, though some responses will get a brief reply by me, or, if I find it interesting and something I can engage fully, as the foundation for another post. I have had many posts inspired or improved upon thanks to my readers.

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