My Story

I love the story of Peter walking on water. I love it because it's my story.
A bunch of guys saw Jesus walking on water, and Peter asked if he could go out and be by His side.

I remember wanting to be by His side myself. I'd had enough of religious talk and waiting for religious meetings to end - I was interested in the possibility of a relationship.

Peter didn't know what he was doing. He hadn't figured out a way to displace his weight in such a way as to balance himself on the waves. All he knew was that the one who did know what He was doing was out there on the water.

I had no idea what I was doing. Beyond that, I had no ability to be in a right relationship with the God of the Universe. I hear tons of people talk about praying "our prayers go out to your family" but if you talk about prayer like you believe in it - if you talk about prayer outside of church - well you're just wacky.

Peter couldn't walk on water.

I couldn't fix this problem I had - even Mother Theresa said that we've all turned out backs on God in some way...and she was a pretty good little gal. If she wasn't good enough on her own, well maybe we all need help beyond ourselves...

Peter couldn't walk on water - I couldn't fix the relationship.

God did that by paying the price for all my junk.

All Peter could do was lock eyes with Jesus. That's about all I've got going myself.

Because he was focused on Jesus...not religion...not trying to earn his way into Heaven...not counting how many good things he'd done and weighing them against his junk...he just looked at Jesus - because of this - he got to walk on water. Nice....

Peter got out of the boat. I got out of the boat. He took a step of faith...I took a step of faith... I asked God to take all my garbage and forgive me...I told him I wanted to be a follower...and that was my first step...

That's my picture of following Jesus. Getting out of the boat...

Peter probably looked stupid. I definitely do.

He probably didn't care. I definitely do.

He ended up losing his focus and locking in on the storm that came up. That's the story of my life.

He figured it out and cried out for help.

I really think the walk of a mature believer resembles someone who still loses focus, who still gets wrapped up in the storms in our life...but they're just a little quicker to own up to it and to cry out for help.

We all need help.

I definitely do.