Get Out of the Boat

Today was a good day.

This evening, I attended a "Ladies' Night Out" event at my church. Oh yes, it's ladies night... and the feeling's right.. oh what a night! LOL. Anyway..

God is so great. He knows just what I need. The evening started with dinner and socializing... which made me somewhat uncomfortable since I didn't know very many of the women at my table. But go figure, the woman to my left is a social worker, so we had a lot to chat about since I'm working on my Master's in Social Work as of this past Monday :)Like I said, God is so great.

After dinner, we had a mini-worship service. My favorite thing ever is to worship God in song. I don't know why, really. I feel like He reveals so much to me through music. When I have doubts about who He is, and I choose to listen to the strumming of an acoustic guitar in a worship song... I'm reminded of His great love for me and how this simple, yet elegant sound is enjoyed by so many people.. and it wouldn't make sense if there was no God. Everything has a purpose; and to me, the purpose of music is to bring glory to our Father in Heaven and also to bring us joy. Why would we need joy if there was no God? He provided avenues of joy in our lives because He LOVES US. :) Oh, how he loves us! (That's one of my favorites)

Tonight the music touched me.. but the words God spoke to my heart touched me even more. He uses people. I know it's true. We had a lady pastor from another church come speak for our event tonight. She had a southern accent even though she's lived in fairview heights for 20 years. I'm glad she hasn't lost it, it's really cute and a little comforting :).

To preface, I found her words very ironic in that she used the story of Jesus walking on water, and Peter walking on water.. you know for a split second, and the rest of the disciples in the boat. The reason why this is ironic to me is that my husband and I went to a Jamaican church service on our honeymoon, and the pastor used the same story in his teaching. Maybe you'll catch the irony when I'm done with this post...

So she set up the scene, in a different way than I recall hearing it in the past. She referred to the "walking on water experience" as a pop-quiz for the disciples. They had, just moments before getting on the boat, witnessed Jesus feed a multitude of people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. This has always been hard for me to wrap my head around... since in my family 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish wouldn't go very far. But I guess that's why you call it a miracle :)

So anyway, the disciples witnessed this miracle right? So what was the point? What was he trying to teach them? .... Maybe that HE CAN DO ALL THINGS... Maybe that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD...Maybe that HE CAN BE TRUSTED... yeah

So, Jesus tells the disciples to get in the boat and they go out into the middle of the water while Jesus goes up to the mountain to pray. It says in the bible that the boat was "buffeted" by the waves. This means that the boat was being "strik[ed] against repeatedly"- dictionary.com. So it was kind of violent in the water and the disciples were afraid.

Relating that to our own lives: We're in the midst of something, and sometimes things are really difficult when you're in the middle of it, still trying to work your way through it. We witness God doing wonderful things in our lives, and we still get scared. We have fear that something is going to go wrong.

For me, I was thinking about my marriage. When Neil and I first got together, it seemed like "smooth sailing." Things were just happy all the time. But now that we've been married a little while, it's gotten bumpy. Our marriage boat is being buffeted by the waves of life.. our own pride and insecurities. And it makes me scared. Sometimes I feel like God can't, or won't, save us from this threatening storm in our marriage...whatever it may be.

So Jesus walks out on to the water. (Just like that.. he walks on the water) And the disciples are in doubt. Even though they've seen him perform all sorts of miracles, they think there's a ghost on the water because there's no way Jesus could do that.

And I'm like that too. I question if it's Jesus, when he's on his way to help me.

Jesus invited Peter out into the water, to walk with him on the water. I can imagine all the other disciples snickering thinking, "Yeah right.." but they didn't have the courage... or trust to get out of the boat themselves. Peter stepped onto the water.. and he was walking on it. Jesus was with him, he was safe. But the waves started crashing against his feet, and he got a little scared... and he lost his faith...and fell in.

Jesus, of course, pulled him out and said to him, "Why did you doubt me? I was here with you all along... "

I do this all the time. I doubt my marriage. I doubt that God is going to pull us through it. It seems impossible. We argue so much.. we disagree on almost everything... and I don't wanna do it God's way. I wanna do it my way, because obviously, I know more than God. [That's sarcasm by the way.]

And the ironic thing to me is that on my honeymoon, I heard this story... and I never would have guessed it would apply so much during my marriage :)

God's way is the only way to do things right. It's scary when we're struggling and it's scary when we have to give up our will to God's and trust that He's going to make it work. But HE ALWAYS DOES. He is FAITHFUL. I just have to trust Him, I have to get out of the boat and experience life, doing things I thought were impossible with Jesus by my side.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWDpbZmI-ug