Your Greatest Step of Faith

When Christian Wiman considered this question, he had trouble coming up with a clear answer.

The poet was drawing near to faith in Christ. As he came to the precipice of everything he knew and still wanted to understand, he famously penned these words of longing, titled “My Bright Abyss”: “Once more I come to the edge of all I know // and believing in nothing believe in this:”

And that is where Wiman’s poem ends—unfinished, with a colon rather than a period after its fourth line — because he was not sure yet what he believed or where his faith would take him. He was on the edge, not knowing where his next step would lead.

We all face similar moments, at the precipice of everything we know. The next step is a big one, maybe more like a leap. It looks like such a long way down that it is hard for us to move. Yet we can’t stand still.

Maybe the boldest step that anyone has ever taken — including Neil Armstrong! — is the step Simon Peter took one night on the Sea of Galilee.

A storm came up, as storms do on the Sea of Galilee. Matthew tells us that “the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them” (14:24). In the middle of that black night — around 3:00 a.m. — the disciples saw a strange apparition. It was Jesus coming toward them, striding on the sea. But when they saw him walking on the water, “they were terrified, and said, ‘It is a ghost!’ and they cried out in fear” (14:26). This was not the first time Jesus needed to reassure his frightened followers, and it wouldn’t be the last. Immediately, he said to them, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid” (14:27).

It was at this moment that Peter was inspired to step out in faith. Martin Luther King Jr. rightly said: “Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase.” Peter took that first step. He had heard Jesus claim to be the Son of God. He had seen him perform healing miracles. Hours before, he had gathered up the broken pieces of bread that proved Jesus’ power to feed the people. Peter surely believed that Jesus could walk on water. He also believed that by the power of Jesus, he could walk on water too. So, he blurted out, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water” (14:28). When Jesus invited his disciple to join him on the open sea, Peter “got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus” (14:29).

—. What happened specifically to Peter was unprecedented and unrepeatable. But this narrative can shape our own spiritual story.

Peter saw an opportunity — a place where he was invited to walk with Jesus. For him, this place was the Sea of Galilee. For us, it will be some other place. It will be a relationship we know we should pursue, or an educational opportunity that will sharpen our gifts, or a conversation we need to have, or a call to ministry, or some other door that suddenly opens right in front of us.

With that inner prompting comes a divine invitation. It may not come through an audible voice, although it certainly could. However it is given, we receive the same simple invitation that Peter received when Jesus said, “Come.”

The question for each of us is what we will do when Jesus gives us this invitation. Will we at least take the next step he is asking us to take? Joni Eareckson Tada famously says: “Faith isn’t the ability to believe long and far into the misty future. It’s simply taking God at his word and taking the next step.”

Content taken from I Have My Doubts: How God Can Use Your Uncertainty to Reawaken Your Faith (Crossway 2024). Used with permission.