I recently read again the story of Jesus walking on the water. I have heard or read this story countless times in my life and undoubtedly the same is true for you.
Let’s briefly recap the amazing event-
The disciples are sailing ahead of Jesus during the night when a storm arises. Jesus comes to the disciples, miraculously walking on water! When he sees the Savior, Peter calls out “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water,” to which Jesus agrees. Peter leaves the boat and walks on the water, but as his attention drifts to the storm and the waves he begins to panic and sink. Immediately Jesus reaches out and pulls Peter up to safety and they return to the boat.
As I read this story recently I found 3 lessons that we can learn from Peter’s experience.
Lesson #1- Life is more exciting and meaningful when we get out of the boat.
Heroes are not bystanders. Heroes are in the thick of all the danger and all the excitement. At this point in his ministry the disciples had seen a number of miracles performed by Jesus, one of which occurred on this very sea as he calmed the storm. But this is one of the first times when a disciple takes an active role in the miracle. Peter gets out of the boat and walks on the water with Jesus. No longer is Peter an obedient observer but he is right in the middle of the miracle, experiencing for himself the incredible power of Jesus.
In this life, all that matters are our experiences and our relationships. Everything else is worthless in the context of eternity. Surely in our lives we are blessed to be observers to wonderful things, but the most impactful moments that we will ever have are the moments in which we are active and engaged participants.
The birth of a nephew is a miraculous and wonderful thing, but it can not possibly compare to the birth of your own child. For our nephew, we are a concerned and loving observer. For our own son, we are an active and engaged participant. For our nephew we can watch from the boat, for our son we must walk on water.
Life is better outside of the boat.
Lesson #2- Failure is inevitable. It is also irrelevant.
By saying that failure is irrelevant I don’t mean to imply that it isn’t real or consequential. What I mean to convey is that failure never has to be a determining factor in the destination of our lives.
Peter begins this story with incredible faith. He was doing everything that he was supposed to do and even went above and beyond the efforts of the other disciples as he got out of the boat to join Jesus. That is bold! But almost immediately Peter gets distracted and begins to sink. He fails. Jesus even tells him that he failed saying “O thou of little faith.” But think of the lesson that Peter learns here- even when our best efforts fail, especially when they fail due to our own decisions or inadequacies, Jesus will lift us up.
Peter learned very personally, from his own experience, that failure is swallowed up by the greatness of Jesus.
Lesson #3- Believing that Jesus can calm the storm is different from knowing, through experience, that we can walk on water.
I can’t help but imagine the reactions of the disciples must have changed as this event unfolded. I imagine their awe as they recognize the savior and realize that he is walking on a stormy sea. I’m sure witnessing miracles like this never gets old or routine, but at this point the disciples had seen Jesus do a lot of amazing things. But as Peter gets out of the boat and walks on water himself, the experience must have taken on a new light as they realized that Jesus isn’t limited to performing miracles himself, but that he can transform his followers into miracle workers. WE can be the heroes of the story with his help. WE can make a difference with his power.
As men, there is great and miraculous work for us to do in our families and in our communities, but we can never be the heroes we are meant to be if we are simply observers from the boat. Merely thinking about or talking about the amazing power of God will never produce the miracles our world needs.
We must get out of the boat and walk with Jesus.
