Skipping Rocks And Faith

It happens more often than you think.  In fact, you’ll find it every day if you know what to look for.  And if you know what to do with it.

Perfection.

It’s when a situation meets preparation and gumption.  A pass, a dive, and a catch.  A man, a woman, and an introduction.  A broken person, a dying savior, and faith.

Today it was a riverbed, a rock, and a throw.

If you’ve skipped many rocks, you know that half the challenge is finding the the right rock.  Flat, not too thin, not too thick, round, even, not too big, not too small.  Typically you just have to make due with what you can find - clunky, flimsy, odd, random – and make up for it with the throw.

But every so often you stumble upon the perfect rock, the perfect water, and the perfect throw.  And the results can be quite impressive.  Today was that day for me.  I found it.

And I paused.

Have you considered that the very characteristic of the “perfect” skipping rock that makes it ideal has less to do with the rock itself and more to do with the one who finds it?

The rocks perfection is only completed by the finder’s willingness to throw it away.  And not just throw it, but wholeheartedly zing it so that it travels as far away from himself as he can get it.

Faith is a lot like that, too.

We comb the waterfronts of our lives looking for that “perfect” something that will make all the difference.  A career.  A spouse.  A house.  A physique.  A reputation.

More often than not we’re forced to “spin” those things the best that we can to see how far they can go.  And inevitably they all fall remarkably short of the perfection we seek.

What about this gospel (literally “good news”) of a perfect God providing a perfect sacrifice to perfectly deal with every imperfection in me?  Have you found that “Rock” yet?

And if you have, what have you done with it?  Is your faith buried deep in a pocket?  Forgotten upon a shelf?  Left in the riverbed?  Or have you exerted you’re best effort into seeing just how far this “Rock” is really capable of going?

The Bible talks about faith being “perfected”.  Now, God IS perfect in His power, and Jesus’s sacrifice IS perfect in provision (there’s no need for us to finish anything for Him).  But there is the aspect of faith being perfected IN us.  IN you, and IN me.

That work requires some gumption on our part.

First, pick up the rock.  Take hold of that salvation, hope and life that Jesus has provided and extended to us.

Second, throw it as well and as far as you can.  Our lives the continuation of that One perfect Rock and His eternal “skip” through history.

(By the way, I threw the rock I found today.  And it WAS perfect!)