"The Fruit of the Spirit is ... faithfulness"* (Galatians 5:22-23)

I love being on the water and take every chance to go out in my boat, J-I-M (Jan, Ian and Mark). Well, I call it a boat. I get some teasing from my family and church about my watercraft. You see, it’s a little red row boat that I built myself. Some might call it a floating box. 8ft by 4ft, with a flat bottom and square sides. It has a 45 degree bow to make rowing a little easier. Technically it would be called a punt, or maybe a scow.

I said to Jan one day that I was going to have a boat even if I had to build it myself. Ding! The idea bell rang in my mind and I built my little vessel. The next year I rigged a sail and leeboard. Its quite a sight in full sail - 32 square feet of blue tarp material (remember - this is a low-budget project), with 15 feet of mast on an 8 foot boat.

Its not real fast, but its fun to sail and incredibly stable. Of course, I can only go as far as I’m willing to row home against the wind. As a joke, Jan gave me a t-shirt with "Captain" on the front.

Boats help me think about today’s fruit of the Spirit. Depending on the translation of the Bible you read, you may have "faith" or "faithfulness." This difference reflects the difficulty of translating a word with a double meaning into a single English word. In fact, it can mean both faith and faithfulness.

Faith is belief, trust, conviction. That’s how I feel toward my boat when I go out for a "cruise." If I didn’t trust in it, I wouldn’t take it off the beach. I can swim well (I used to be a lifeguard) and I always wear my lifejacket, but I’m not interested in getting wet.

Trust is a basic issue for us as believers. We need to trust Jesus with our souls - "If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9) This is the most basic form of trust. In a way, Jesus is the boat. If we don’t trust in him, we won’t leave shore, spiritually speaking.

At the next level, trust is at the heart of obedience. We disobey when, deep-down, we don’t believe that God knows what is best for us.

Trust is also a lifestyle and outlook. We can’t stay where we are and go with God at the same time. We either believe that going with God is better or we stay where we are. That’s what faith is all about. We can’t predict the future, but we trust that it will be better with God.

Faith affects the way we look at the future. If we believe that God brings good things into our lives (that doesn’t mean that tests and trials won’t come along), then we will look to the future with anticipation. If we’re cynical and hardened, it shows we don’t believe God is going to bring good things.

It took me a while to see the connection between faith and cynicism. There was a time when I believed that the next bad thing was just about to happen to me. If I’m truthful, I still battle this tendency. "Once bitten, twice shy," is a helpful proverb, but it doesn’t have to be life motto.

If faith is about trust, then faithfulness is about trustworthiness, reliability, commitment, consistency. For a better idea of this, lets look at the boat itself. Boats have to be faithful. Unreliable boats sink. That’s bad. I was about to write that they leave us high and dry, but then I realized what I was saying.

Conscientious owners keep up their maintenance to ensure faithfulness. Maintenance is not about making sure the boat looks good at the wharf. Its about being ready for the wind and the waves.

I used to think that we could get ourselves to the point where we really don’t need to work on faith and faithfulness anymore. I’m realizing more and more that I need constant work to stay ship-shape. If I don’t, then I put myself at risk. At best, I miss out on blessings God has for me. That’s not good. At worst, I risk catastrophic character failure. That’s bad.

Character is measured and judged in those situations which put us under pressure. There is a saying, "Anyone can hold the wheel when the water is calm." If I have trouble when the water is still, who am I to think that I’ll withstand the heavy seas? Faithfulness is about keeping trust, character and integrity when it counts the most.

I hope this helps. Be On Fire

Troy

ON FIRE is a weekly letter of encouragement by Troy Dennis. This letter published June 26, 2005. www.onfireletter.com