This week we’re finishing up our series in Philippians.

He won me over the moment he described himself as a “ham-fisted numpty.”

His name is David Johns, and he is a slightly awkward, very British, former television news reporter who

has a YouTube channel called “Cruising the Cut.” The channel is about his life on something called a

“narrowboat” which, unsurprisingly, is a long, narrow boat built to navigate a very old canal network in

England.

Johns films himself on peaceful boating adventures where he meets fellow travelers and teaches the

viewer about the canals. But for me a lot of the fun is watching him perform maintenance or upgrades

on his boat. He does a good job with it but is admittedly not a professional handyman - thus his

proclamation that he is a “ham-fisted numpty” which as best as I can tell translates in American to

“clumsy oaf” but sounds way more colorful.

Do you ever feel like a numpty? I do, especially when facing a problem I’m not sure how to solve. Some

problems can feel like mountains, and we have some advice about those:

“Because of your little faith,” He told them. “For I assure you: If you have faith the size of a mustard

seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be

impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20 HCSB)

But how does a narrowboat canal network manage obstacles like mountains? With painstakingly dug

tunnels. Some of the canal tunnels are upwards of a mile long, allowing mere inches overhead and

between two boats if they pass one another slowly in opposite directions. Trips through these dark

tunnels can take over thirty minutes. Although the trip may be harrowing and even scary at times, the

only practical way for a canal boat to the other side of a mountain is to go through a tunnel.

Do you have a mountain facing you? Faith the size of a mustard seed can move it aside; but considering I

often use my faith like a ham-fisted numpty wields a hammer, that’s not always an option for me.

But there’s another way. A tunnel through my circumstances. The Way.

I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13 HCSB)

I can get through the mountain, but only through Him. He’s the way, the truth, and the life.

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

(John 14:6 HCSB)

By Mark Stuart

Mark is the husband of Laura, father of Shelby and Jacob, and father-in-law of Bailey.