This is something I wrote several years ago…
God’s flying this boat! And if He wants to fly a boat, he can. What happens in our lives doesn’t always make much sense, if any. Or at least, not in my experience. But if and when you find yourself at this point, remember Who is in control. And if you wake up one morning to find your boat flying or your life seemingly upside down, well, it’s really too late to tell Jesus that boats don’t fly.
It scares us to death when things like that happen. But when it happens to you, what will you do? It’s not unrealistic to be afraid. And it isn’t nonreligious to be afraid. It is rather un-Christlike. But given the fact that you’re probably human, and given the fact that humans find certain Christlike things very disconcerting at times, what will you do?
You will find yourself in topsy-turvy times sooner or later. Jesus seemed to enjoy putting the disciples through things like that. (Sometimes I wonder if it isn’t still a favorite pastime of his…) I’m thinking of 12 disciples in a boat in the middle of the night. There’s a bit of a storm, and they’re rowing hard. All of a sudden, they see someone walking toward their boat. Normally, no problem. But they aren’t on shore. They’re in the middle of the Sea!
“And they cried out, and were sore afraid.” They were human. And they were scared. But Jesus said “It is I, be not afraid.” And they all said, “Whew!” “You had us going a minute there, Jesus!” “Ha, funny trick!”
Nope. They kept shaking. They were still scared. But brash Peter said, “OK, if it’s you, bid me come out to you.”
And Jesus said, “Come.” Peter walked to Him on the water. Was Peter unafraid? No. He was scared when he saw the wind and waves- he began to sink. He had just forgotten to be afraid for a minute, in his eagerness to get closer to Jesus.
And when Peter did become afraid and sink, did Jesus say, “You got yourself into this fix, now get yourself out”? Did He stand by and laugh? No. He reached out to Peter. He took Him by the hand. And immediately they were in the boat. No ropes thrown to them. No climbing in. They were just there. But suddenly it didn’t matter that it wasn’t a normal entrance. It just mattered that Jesus was on board.
