Wednesday; March 21

          One of the more intriguing stories of the Gospels occurred on a dark, stormy night.  Jesus had just finished a busy day with thousands of people and decided He needed a little break.  He sent the disciples on ahead of Him on the lake then He decided to join them later.  As all of us learned in science class, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, so He took off to join them by walking on the water rather than taking the longer route by land.  By the time Jesus caught up with the disciples’ boat they were scared and worn out by the storm.  Jesus reassured them that He was not the Grim Reaper coming to take them away, which prompted Peter to ask if Jesus would help him walk on the water – to which Jesus said, “Come on!”.  Most of us are familiar with the story of how Peter was able to walk on the water for a while, then was overcome by his fear of his surroundings and began to sink.  While there are several lessons that can be learned from Peter’s faith (or lack thereof), I think it is interesting to wonder what went on inside the boat.  Did the disciples cheer him on when he climbed out of the boat?  How many of the disciples warned Peter not to try the “impossible”?  How many others derided Peter when his faith waned and he had to be rescued by Jesus?  Yet, at the heart of the account is this simple truth, “And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus.”.  (Matthew 14:29)
          When we attempt to do something incredible by faith there will be three types of people:  some will encourage us to do it, some will warn us about the risks and others will be more than willing to say, “I told you so” at the first sign of failure.  Yet, if we are going to make a difference as people of faith we have to be willing to step out of the boat.
          Is there something that we want to do (or that we need to do)?  Let’s garner the faith we need and take the leap.  We won’t please everyone, but if we never try it we won’t know if we can do it or not.
          Think About It!

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