I guess you could say that I am the victim of my own preaching. One of my favorite parts about being a local preacher was watching people grow spiritually over time. I love seeing people “get it” and start to make serious, positive changes in their lives. I loved helping them, not just to understand the Scriptures, but to put them to practice in their lives. It never gets old. A funny thing happens when you preach/teach and listen to what you are saying. Those same Scriptures begin to work on your heart just like they do everyone else’s. I kept hearing myself telling the folks in my Bible classes that they needed to step outside of the box spiritually, do the thing that scares you the most and set spiritual goals for yourself and then reach for them. I was challenging everyone to do that, at am still amazed at how many did and what they were able to accomplish, but I wasn’t practicing what I was preaching. I was just on spiritual cruise control. I knew what I wanted/needed to do, but was too afraid to acknowledge it because of the implications of it. I needed to leave local preaching. I knew it deep down in my heart but because of fear, guilt, shame and a sense of obligation, I refused to acknowledge it. But it wouldn’t go away. It was about this same time that, figuratively speaking, I saw Jesus walking on the water.
Let me explain that one of my favorite accounts from the Bible is Matthew 14 and Jesus walking on the water. I have preached this many times and love talking about it. In the context, Jesus is trying to teach the disciples to stop sitting back expecting Him to solve every problem they encounter and get hands on with their faith. He will still be there to do what they can’t, but they needed to learn to get up and do what they can. I often talk about our need to get off the pew, or to the preachers out there, get out of the office, and get hands on with our faith. The people had no food, the disciples want to send them away, but Jesus says, no, you feed them. They make the excuse, we can’t. Jesus replies bring me what you have and you know the rest of the story. They couldn’t solve the problem on their own, but instead of ignoring it or making it someone else’s problem to deal with, Jesus wanted them to do what they could and leave the rest up to Him. How often are we like that. It’s not my problem, let somebody else deal with it, when all God wants us to do is get to work?
Immediately after this, the disciples are on a boat in the middle of the water, in the middle of the night in the middle of a storm. It’s at this moment they think they see a ghost, walking on the water no less and they are so afraid they cry out in terror. This tells me that sometimes it takes difficult and scary things to get our attention and turn our focus to what is important in life. Quickly they realize it’s Jesus and their fear turns to relief. It’s Jesus, He’ll save us, we’re ok now that He is here, must have been their thoughts, but Peter is starting to “get it.” He says to Jesus, if it is really you, let me come out there to you and Jesus says come. Peter understands if you stay in the boat you get to be with the disciples of Jesus, but if you get out of the boat you get to be with Jesus. Peter then takes the greatest step of faith ever taken, and he walks on water. The old saying goes like this: If you want to walk on water, you’ve got to get out of the boat. I’d like to add a thought to that. If you walk on water you’re feet are going to get wet, meaning, there will be some trials, troubles and trade offs in stepping out of the boat.
This is what we are doing. We are stepping out of the boat. We are scared, we have lots of unanswered questions, we don’t know where our financial support will come from, but we know where Jesus is and we want to walk with Him. Sure our feet will get wet and we might even sink and have to cry “Lord, save me.” I am going to practice what I’ve preached. I am stepping outside of the box spiritually and I’m ready to walk on water with Jesus. Who’s willing to take the next step?
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