ISRAEL - Part 3 Water Walking

How cool would it be to walk on water? Answer: very.

Needless to say, when we arrived at the Sea of Galilee, I had big plans to pull off the impossible because, after all, nothing is.

Right?

One evening when Anna Rose was three, I was talking to Lia about how impossible writing is when Anna Rose piped up and said those very words: "Daddy, nothing's impossible with God." Dang it. Wouldn't you believe she was right?

Which leads me here to the water's edge of the beautiful Sea of Galilee. A lake of many names: Gennesaret, Kinneret, and Tiberias to go along with Galilee - the largest fresh water lake in Israel, the second lowest (at 200 or so meters below sea level) in the world (we'll be visiting the lowest in a couple days!). I had an amazing run there. It was like the opposite of running at altitude - no, it wasn't like the opposite, it was!

But running is one thing - water walking is another.

All I needed was faith.

No problem.

Here, my partner in crime, Scott Steele sizes up my chances. 

We were standing on the beach at a place called Peter's Primacy.

It's the "traditional" (we talked about traditional already) location where Jesus and Peter had their conversation on the beach.

John 21. It's one of our favorite stories in the New Testament, one of the most beautiful pictures of love and forgiveness ever written. And we were standing there.

You could almost smell the fish Jesus had been frying.

And Lia and I had just tag-teamed the devotion.

So it was about as good a time as any.

I rolled up my pants. (Quite a display of faith, wouldn't you say).

I approached the water's edge. Tiny waves lapped at my toes.

I closed my eyes.

I prayed.

I mustered all the faith I could muster.

And stepped...

Granted, it would have been riskier trying a water walk in the middle of the lake. But my options were limited.

I sunk right in.

Dead on arrival. 

The faith of a gnat. Actually, gnat's float. I've got less faith than a gnat. 

Which gets me thinking about the significance of the place...the point Jesus was making to Peter when he restored him that day.

It was like he was saying the same thing to me: "Ned, don't you get it? It's not your belief in me but my belief in you that matters."

Dang it. He's right, of course. You'd think I'd learn it by now.