A few years ago, I listened to a press conference featuring a pastor who made this startling announcement: "I am a pastor and I am an atheist." Imagine for a moment that you were a member of that congregation and your pastor made such an announcement; how would you feel? Let’s go even further: imagine that you were this pastor. You spent the beginning of your adult life training for ministry and then you spent the next twenty years as a pastor—only to discover that you no longer believed in God. How could this happen? Could it happen to you? Today, let’s take a little time to consider a warning that Paul gave to a bright young leader named Timothy:

Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. (1 Tim. 1:18-19)

In today’s passage, Paul gives Timothy a clear warning that people can "shipwreck" their own faith. Let’s consider Timothy: he came from a godly family, with a believing mother and grandmother. He had accompanied Paul on apostolic missions all across what is modern day Turkey, from Galatia to Corinth, and was noted for his knowledge of scripture. Despite all of this experience, Paul warns him of dangers which Paul says result from rejecting faith and conscience. Make no mistake; these same dangers lie in wait for us, unseen shoals that could shipwreck your faith and mine. While we don’t know the whole story of what shipwrecked that pastor’s faith and made him an atheist, we do know the warnings of Scripture. They apply to all of us, so we must take them seriously.

Today is a good day to begin strengthening your faith. Are you in daily prayer? Are you in regular fellowship with other believers? Are you seeking God’s direction or just doing what you want? Protecting your precious faith is a necessary part of following Jesus. Shipwrecks really do happen. Are you sailing in the deep channel of faith …or are you drifting too close to the rocks?