Amber and I spent our Sunday morning attending a non denominational church service where our Niece Mila was blessed. It was a very enlightening and enjoyable experience. The pastor (I am not really sure what his title is) talked about the experience that the apostles had when Jesus walked across the water to them and Peter wanted to walk out to the Lord upon the water. I think this is a very telling story and something that is so useful for each one of us to reflect upon.
Imagine a moment that you are in this boat with seasoned boating veterans some of whom had been fishers for most of their lives and are very familiar with boats and being out at sea. The men around you are terrified for their lives because the storm is raging and they are unsure what to do, even given their years and years of experience. Now imagine that you see something in the distant coming towards you like a complete piece of calm in the middle of the raging storm. Seeing the calm in the middle of the storm my first instinct would be to reach for it or to find my way to be a part of that. To leave the tumultuous world that is around you and step into the calm of the Lord. Peter obviously felt this way because he yearned to walk to the Lord in the middle of the Storm so that he could be with him. And he succeeded... for a short while. He did not keep his eye on the prize, he let outside influences keep him from focusing on the Lord and trusting explicitly in him. So he started to sink, but as he was sinking the Lord being so kind of beneficial stepped in to save his life.
There are so many parallels to draw from this story, so many golden nuggets that can truly add something to our lives. So I just wanted to point out a few that are particularly important to me.
1. Even if we are experts in our realm, at some point we will be out of our league and the only thing that can truly save us is the Lord. Coming to realize that we are powerless and that we are "less than the dust of the earth" is the most effective ways to see that find help in the darkest of situations.
2. The Lord can always lighten our load and calm the storm which we walk through as long as we reach out to him and trust in him explicitly. If we don't trust him this way we are bound to fall, and usually we fall to somewhere worse than we were before, like Peter falling into the sea and no longer near the safety of his boat.
3. The Lord always will try to stretch us to our breaking points in order for us to grow. Just as Peter had to overcome his doubt in order to walk out to the Lord, we each have to overcome our weaknesses in order to reach out to the Lord. Now we might not always make it, but if we do our best the Lord will step forth to help us.
I don't know how to put into words the truth that the Lord provides to us through the scriptures but if we could learn but one simple thing from this story, I would say that we learn that the Lord will make up the difference, if we do our very best he will be their to reach out his hand to us, and lift us up from the depth of the seas in the stormiest of situations.
How deep are we, what depth does our character contain? Will we really trust in the Lord to the best of our ability? Will we humble ourselves completely before the Lord when the Storms of life begin to beat and batter us? I hope and pray that we will.
