Three Christians, Three Boats
By Dr. Peter Wade, Published: 3rd May 2005
With the coming of the victorious life will
be the power to live in spite of. Many of us
know the power to live on account of, but not in
spite of.
When our surroundings are favourable, and life
is with us, we go on. But life is not like that
always. It often turns rough. And then we are
tested to the depths. If our faith is but an
echo of our surroundings then it will fade out.
But if it is real it will then speak from the
depths.
Before finding the victorious life the disciples
were at the mercy of many of their
circumstances. Afterwards they were the masters
of them. They learned how to mould life instead
of being moulded by it.
There are three kinds of Christians : the
row-boat type, the sail-boat type and the
steam-boat type. The row-boat type is the type
that is humanistic, self-dependent, trying to
get on with its own resources. But as those
resources are limited, the progress is limited.
The sail-boat type depends on the winds. They
are the people who are dependent on
circumstances-—the other-dependent ones. If the
winds are with them, if people are constantly
complimenting them and encouraging them, they
get on. But if the patting on the back stops,
they stop. They are circumstance-conditioned.
Not very dependable Christians. Then there is
the steam-boat type-—those who have power on the
inside-—and they go on whether winds are
favourable or unfavourable. It is true they go
on faster when there is a helping wind, but
nevertheless they go on, wind or no wind. They
have an inner adequacy. They are not
self-dependent, nor circumstance-dependent, but
Christ-dependent. They are dependable.
This power to go on when life is dead against us
is the deepest necessity of our lives. In
victorious living this becomes a working fact. —
E. Stanley Jones in “Victorious Living” (1936).