I've entitled this post "Detox" because that's what I feel is happening. I saw so many different contexts, which aroused just as manny reactions within me, then I heard so many things worth writing down yet many of which seem to contradict each other, that I almost feel my mind has become toxic holding it all simultaneously.
So I will be posting about a different community, context, or quote each of the next few days—partly to allow the sand swirling in the pool of my mind to settle, and partly because these things incited the passion that seeks the practical, tangible forms of Christian love, community, or responsibility with which this blog began.
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Jumping Out of the Boat
Things got real in the back of the MRNA Urban Immersion van before the sun even rose Thursday morning. My friend, we'll call him "Marty," began explaining his desire to write a letter to his heritage—a veritable wake-up call directed at ruts the likes of which all traditions tend to find. As he was thinking about that, and about an upcoming speaking engagement, he told me how a passage from Matthew 14 grabbed him and held him against his will.
"Immediately [Jesus] made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him, they were terrified saying 'It is a ghost!' And the cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, 'Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.'
"Peter answered him, 'Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.' He said, 'Come.' So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and come toward Jesus. But when we noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink he cried out, 'Lord, save me!' Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, 'You of little faith, why did you doubt?' When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshipped him saying, 'Truly you are the Son of God.'" - Matthew 14.22-33
"Marty" spoke of the courage it must have taken Peter to step out of the boat. The synchronistic thing about this is that this exact passage is one over which I wrote a paper in undergrad—totally on my own, not for class, not for church, and only because I had this unyielding desire to write on it.
How often did I hear growing up of Peter's "little faith"! How often did I ridicule him because he fell into the water—something the laws of nature already tell me would happen! When we think like that, we assume the point is to ignore "the world;" we don't realize that the way we've chosen to do that is to stay in the boat and ignore the danger.
But here's the trick: Peter knew all too well what was happening. He and his fellow life-long fishermen knew the water, knew the boat, knew that they were in a storm that should terrify them because it could claim there lives.
And he didn't ask Jesus to come to his boat and calm the storm.
Instead, Peter told Jesus to call him onto the water.
Peter told Jesus to call him out of the world he knew, out of security, out of his best statistical chance for safety, into the waves, into the land of breaking the laws of nature.
Just because Jesus was there.
My friend, "Marty" seeks that courage. Seeks the guts to be like Peter, stepping out of the safety of his heritage's traditions, because he sees Jesus in the dangerous, chaotic waves.
Because Jesus, surrounded by danger and impossibility, is better than the boat.
So ask yourself: "Is it worth the fear, the humiliation, the danger, and the ridicule of falling, to step out of the boat, just to walk a few steps on the water with Jesus?"
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