Stormy weather....

Life happens, I wrote in the blog on Monday.

Life; broken and bruised, battered and bleeding, happens throughout the world each day. Victories won, battles surrendered, lives changed in the blink of an eye and circumstances come to beat down even the most powerful people. In an instant, life happens. In the tempest of the storms, Christ calls us out like He did Peter…..one simple, direct word: “Come.”

Too few of us will give up that immediate and illusionary safety of the boat and the companionship that surrounds us. Yet Christ stands upon the waves so high that it surely seems He should drown. He holds out His hand and simply says, “Come.” Yet, we who have surrendered our lives to Him in dying to ourselves and our own foolishness react much like the other eleven disciples did…..”It’s a ghost!” and continue to battle the wind, the sea, and the tempest deep.

Just as Jesus commanded the twelve to get into the boat and cross the sea, sometimes the events of our lives are nothing more than the result of our actions, sinful and immoral, that are an accounting; Our Father God bring about that which we desired so much to do that we strayed from His path…..and He, ever faithful, calls us back. It is that moment; between the realization of sin and the calling of our God to repent and return that we find our boat moment.

Like Peter, is our desire to be living examples of Christ and to do His will enough? Peter knew that what Christ commanded He was also empowered to do. William Carey once said, “Expect great things of God, and attempt to do great things for God.” Despite what I am sure was opposition from the others in the boat, Peter denied what his mortal body told him and stepped into the tempest.

And walked on water, defying the very laws of physics that bound his physical body by the application of his faith.

So, you’ve stepped out into the raging seas….walking confidently those first few steps with confidence and faith…..a surreal moment bound by the eerie silence and heaviness of faith…….

And then Chaos exerts control and you feel the sway of the tide, the wetness of the waves and the howling of the wind. You hear, as Peter did, the boisterousness of the wind. It seems louder than God’s voice and far, far more desiring of you attention than Christ.

“Unbelief puts our circumstances between us and God.” F.B. Meyer remarked, “But faith puts God between us and our circumstances.”

Faith cannot be called faith unless it is followed by action, obedient action, in the worst of storms and raging circumstances. A faith untested is a useless thing, for anyone can say, “Lord, Lord” and yet walk a life that brings devastation and chaos to all they come into contact with. Few can walk the path that Jesus laid out, and none can walk it as Christ did.

Our storms cause us to wonder and fear stands before our faith.

We, like Peter, take our eyes off Christ and begin to sink…………………..

Life happened yesterday. Like a nuclear explosion. Like a runaway train. Like the betrayal of a wife who seeks the arms of another. Like the husband who hides his heart from those who need his unconditional love. Like the Body of Christ who stand in judgment and issue the decree of reasoning for another’s struggle.

Life sank, and God stood there upon the waves of fury and despair…...

I don’t know how long it took Peter before he cried out for Christ’s help. Maybe he looked around, and tried to turn back towards the boat. Maybe he sank as far as his chin before he cried out to Christ for help.

I know that when the life-altering, exploding and damaging wind of this life’s happening hit the walls of my faith, I shuddered……and felt the pain of its impact. And I lost sight for a moment of that figure on top of the waters of this violent and troubled world.

Sinking isn’t a pleasant feeling…..especially when you’ve been at the bottom before and knows of its despair and hopelessness.

And God said, “Why, with what I have brought you through, do you doubt My authority and My power? My grace. My mercy. Above all, my son, why do you know doubt My strength?”

He’s trained me to carry a lot more as a testimony of His power and this new burden is but a fly upon the cross I carry for my God…….

Lesson learned……God has shown up and is…..


calling me out of the boat to walk on the water……