Tuesday 17 April 2007

Walking on Water

Hey there! It's been a while since I last posted anything and that is purely down to having a hectic Easter period and being involved in a Youth Camp over the Easter holidays. Being part of the camp experience again was totally awesome and even though I felt "old" sometimes, I appreciated the immense value in investing in the spiritual lives of the young teens. I have just started reading a great book by John Ortberg, 'If you want to walk on water you've got to get out of the boat.' Wow, this book is really challenging and I find that it is speaking to me on a whole number of different levels. I will have to share some of these insights with you in the weeks to come. First thought though - Why is it that we so seldom take risks? Is it because of our personality types? Is it because we are afraid of the "F" word - failure! Or is it that we are just far to comfortable with where we are in our spiritual lives and in our relationships with others. I'm not sure about you, but I want to be person who is willing to "walk on water" or at least to say I have tried it. We usually reflect back on the incident where Simon Peter starts to walk on water and then realises that he is hectically out of his comfort zone and starts to sink. We focus on Jesus' words "You of little faith. Why did you doubt?" However, we miss what Jesus could have said to him, but which is not recorded in Scripture. Perhaps, Jesus said, "Well done dude, at least you tried!" or "Hey bud, at least there are two of us who can say we have walked on water!" Im sure that Jesus was chuffed that Peter at least got out of the boat. The other 11 guys were so afraid they were literally clinging onto each other and praying that they would survive the storm. From that day on Peter had bragging rights that the other disciples never had - "I got out the boat and I walked on water...even if it was only for a short time."
Let's try and live in the moment and take worthy risks. Enjoy walking on water!
Have a great day.
BDT.