By Laurel J.Davis
In the 2010 movie, How Do You Know?, this guy loses almost everything when he comes under federal investigation for stock trading fraud at his father’s firm. Although he is completely innocent, he still loses his girlfriend, is forced to leave his job and oh, forget about trying to find a new one. Adding insult to injury, he realizes his father would rather let him — his own son — take the fall instead of the company; and the fees for his legal defense will start at a whopping $300,000 retainer.
The guy’s loyal secretary, Millie, knowing he’s innocent and wanting to help, is willing to break the law and risk her own job if he’ll just let her be his eyes and ears about what they’re saying around the office. An easy fix? Yes. But he refuses.
“Why won’t you let me help you?” Millie pleads.
Here’s basically how he explains it: Imagine I’m in a little boat in the middle of this big huge ocean, with the waves billowing and crashing all around me, threatening to flip my boat over. Yeah, I’m scared, and I’m holding on for dear life. But I know I’m going to make it. Why? Because my boat is the truth. That’s all I need to stay afloat.
“So, please, Millie,” he concludes. “Don’t rock the boat!”
Wow! The truth is my “boat,” and please don’t rock the boat!
Imagine having so much confidence in the truth that, no matter what’s thrown at you, no matter what threatens you, no matter how scary the journey gets, you know you will survive. As long as you know that truth is what your foundation is built upon, you know it will see you through the storm and you will come out okay.
You also know that the truth doesn’t need any extra help to keep you afloat, even during the worst storms. Sure, don’t throw caution to the wind; gather what information you can if it helps you stay a step ahead in difficult situations. But sometimes when the waves seem so big and the boat too small, people become desperate instead of deliberate.
It’s desperation that makes you take greater risks or compromise your integrity to stay afloat, when all you really need to do is remain secure in your purpose, clear about your vision, and careful and upright about your practices. Allowing unnecessary risks or compromising could hurt more than help by making your boat unsteady — please don’t rock the boat! — or by actually adding more unnecessary weight (such as from the burden of tracking your stream of cover-up, or the burden of guilt from lying) that could potentially sink you.
What a great illustration of why it is so important for Christians to lay hold to truth as we face the heightening storms against our faith in these last days. The truth is our “boat” — the truth of the Gospel and the truth of God’s Word which we try to apply to all areas of life and our eternity. Our faith is grounded in the truth. Our witnessing is a battle cry for truth. We endeavor to live and serve based on truth. We need to be united in truth. We want Bible-based local churches to grow and expand for the sake of spreading the truth. And we encourage and exhort every soul who has an ear to hear to live by and stand up for the truth in their personal lives, come what may.
We do not need to take unnecessary risks or compromise in order to stay afloat in these last days. We just need to remain secure in our God-given purpose and careful and upright about our practices with respect to standing up for the truth. Anything less than that, in addition to that, or other than that, is rocking the boat. “So, please, Millie. Don’t rock the boat!”
If for no other reason, truth really matters because that’s what keeps believers afloat until Jesus comes. Through the ebbs and flows of the Christian experience, and even when the seas are calm and complacency could tempt us to drift off course, by God’s grace, our boat will stay afloat.