Recently a buddy and I took the morning to grab our fishing poles and assorted gear and launch his janky little skiff out of Santa Cruz Harbor. The sea was calm, the air cool, and the timing right for some great fishing.
There was only one problem with this otherwise idyllic scenario; I get seasick. Of course, I knew about this slight hitch before the day began, but I hoped for the best. I fortified myself with non-drowsy, ginger-based anti-nausea medication and prepared to win against the ocean. Needless to say, it didn’t work. We hadn’t been out long when the symptoms began to rise. Positive thinking and careful concentration on the horizon proved powerless to help. All too soon, the gathering waves of nausea swallowed up my enthusiasm for fishing. Even my buddy’s catch of a respectably sized rockfish proved unable to stem the onslaught. I tried to fight it, but in the end, I chummed the waters with a breakfast of toast and apple, all tinctured with the taste of ginger. I handed my rod to my friend, asked him to reel it in for me, and we beat tracks back to the harbor. Sadly, the ocean won.
In contemplating this unfortunate episode, I’m reminded of James’ words in James 1 concerning wisdom and doubt. James writes, “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways (James 1:5-8, NASB). As I understand these verses, the doubt James addresses is not the common battle against unbelief that every believer in Jesus fights. Rather, the doubt in question here is hedging unbelief. It’s unbelief that says, “Sure, I’ll take God’s Word. I’ll take Jesus. But I’ll add to it, I’ll add to him, just to make sure I cover all the bases.” Give me Jesus plus wealth, or Jesus plus a dash of another religion, or Scripture plus worldly wisdom, or anything I add alongside God and his Word to make myself secure. Living in that kind of doubt is something akin to my fishing excursion. With respect to faithfulness and kingdom effectiveness, it leaves one sick, self-centered, ineffective, uninterested in the work at hand. It leaves a person vomiting the half-digested, putrid remains of breakfast when they should be fishing for men.
The parallel I’ve just drawn applies not only to individuals, but even whole churches. I think of congregations who compromise God’s Word in their doctrine and practice. Rather than stand confidently on what God has said, they capitulate to the cultural zeitgeist, to the rolling surf of worldly opinion about right and wrong, good and evil, wise and unwise, effective and ineffective. Examples abound, but in our day, doubt quickly rises in questions of biblical manhood and womanhood and, closely related, biblical sexuality. Compromise with the world in matters such as these leaves the church seasick. A seasick church can’t fish as it ought. Unless something happens to bring health, its descent into total ineffectiveness for the kingdom is only a matter of time.
If you read the gospels, it’s clear that our Lord was often in fishing boats. Perhaps Jesus was one of those men with an iron stomach. If so, it was the iron of belief, the iron of faith. May our God give us such stomachs. May he find us avid fishers of men.
Fix Your Mind 