That's What Happens

Today's Gospel lesson was the story of Jesus walking on water, and then Peter getting out of the boat and doing the same.


Now, I know I've posted on this story before. If you want, you can take a look at it here.


But I want to revisit it in a different light. Here's a portion of the text from Matthew 14:

When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said,“why did you doubt?”

Peter took a mentality of get-out-first-ask-questions-later. We can learn a lot from Peter in this story.

In our own lives, Jesus stands out on the water and calls us to come to Him. And we can do it, and we see Him.

But, as which happened with Peter, happens with us. Peter took his eyes off of Jesus and onto the winds for one minute, and immediately he began sinking and flailing around in the water. That's what happens when you take your eyes off of Jesus and doubt him.

We've all got our problems in life- and the winds of doubt, dread, fear, anxiety, bitterness, anger, and the like begin to blow. And they're strong winds.

And we're walking on water- like walking on eggshells. We're supposed to keep Jesus in our focus.

But we don't always. The winds get the best of us, and we doubt. And we begin sinking and flailing around in the water. That's what happens.

That's what happens when we take our eyes of Jesus. And we end up like this:

What a scary feeling it is. To be flailing around like that. But that's what happens when we take our eyes off of Jesus.

It's too bad, that we, like Peter, have to learn those kinds of things the hard way. 

Never fear. However many times you end up flailing around in the water, God will always jump back in and take you by the hand.

Did you see the word "immediately?" Jesus immediately reached out His hand to catch him.

That's what God does for us. When we're flailing around, he immediately reaches out His hand when we look back to him. Isn't that awesome?!

My prayer for myself, and you too, is the next time we feel those strong winds, we don't end up flailing around rather, we keep our eyes on Jesus. And we'll stay above water.

Blessings:

My list has been absent, but I've realized dreams do come true. As cliche as that sounds, some things that I've wanted and been seeking after for so long have come true.

-Friday was the conference. So many good things happened that day and I had so many positive interactions with colleagues in the ECE field, I could write a list of 100 things that were so great about that day. It made me realize I am chasing after the right dream, and it really is close to coming true.

-While there, during one of the presentations, I was applauded for pursuing this career. It gave me chills. So many people thanked me and said they were so proud of me. 

-2 weeks away from heading back to school, and 3 weeks away from student teaching! Dreams are starting to come true!

-Ever since I first heard this organ, I wanted to play at Zion some day. Last night, and this morning, that dream came true. The organ pipes are in a chamber, so I didn't get a picture of them, but I got a picture of the awe-inspiring stained glass window and wooden carving of the last supper. This was taken from the organ bench. Oh, and we got to sing one of my favorite hymns during communion. 

-As we began the worship services, the pastor introduced me and said "Some day one congregation is going to be really blessed by this guy- to have him as a teacher and an organist." YES! I think it's the other way around though- it is I who will some day be blessed to be able to serve in such a capacity! That dream, God-willing, will be true a year from now!