You remember the story about Peter walking on water. That dude was out of his mind! It went something like this. Jesus sends the disciples across a lake so that he could pray. Later, when he was ready to meet back up with the disciples the boat was a considerable distance from the shore so Jesus decides to walk to them on the water. When he gets to them, he says what you would say if you met your friends while walking on water: “Take courage. It is I. Don’t be afraid.” If I am on the boat, this is about the time I would most likely jump ship but Peter had something else in mind. He wanted Jesus to prove that he was Jesus and not a ghost. Now, there are any number of things that Peter could have asked Jesus to do in order to prove himself. He could have asked Jesus to name his mother, or asked Jesus about a secret that he had shared with him. For that matter, it’s Jesus, so he could have asked him to share a secret that he could not have known. But Peter asked Jesus something much more profound. He says, “Lord, if it’s you, “tell me to come to you on the water.” It is a statement that basically says, if it is you, Jesus, allow me to do what you are doing. Call me into a place where I can only depend on you. Show me that you can bend physics itself. Make me like you.
Since moving to St. Petersburg it has been at the center of my heart to influence change, to bring Jesus to every corner of the campus as well as my neighborhood. I want to see the kingdom delivered in powerful ways. I want to be like the one who called me out here. With this heart I also know that there are disciples who have been here longer than me. They are those whose faith have been a witness to God’s love for the poor. They are those whose prayers, tears, efforts and lives go before me. And in them I see Jesus. So what should I do? We are out of the boat, Jesus is in front of us, and we are sure it is him because we are standing on the waters. This is a critical question for a missionary in a new place. After we’ve made the leap out of the boat, after we have taken the big risk of going to a foreign place, what is our next steps.
I feel the pull of God asking me not to become my own wave. My next step is to keep looking at Jesus. When Peter was walking on water it says that “when he saw the wind he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!“ Of course Jesus saves him and as he pulls him up Jesus says “You of little faith, why did you doubt”.
After learning a little about the history of St. Petersburg and about a few of the pioneers who have been important figures to the south side, I realized that I needed to keep my eyes on Jesus and not allow my own efforts and desires to become a distraction. My family and I need to find our place among those who have been established by God and co-labor with them. It is similar to Jesus asking the disciples to find a worthy person to stay with when he sent them out in Matthew 10. We need to listen to and hold our gaze on Jesus just as intensely as we did when we heard him call us. We will depend on him and allow him to direct our hearts.
My family and I followed the voice of Jesus out of the boat, it seems extremely important for us to keep our eyes on the one who called us and allow His desires to become ours. It is our desire to hurry up to be still so that we can gaze at Jesus and keep following him knowing that it is only by grace that He uses those with small faith.
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