You Always Have A Choice To Make
Disclaimer: whether or not you a believer of a higher power, creator of the earth and its beings, or a supporter of something otherwise, I am writing this post expressing MY own faith and beliefs, and am not preaching any sort of controversial religion on anybody. I came across this story/lesson and very much enjoyed it, and I wanted to share it with all of you to keep in the back of your mind when you question certain decisions in your life, or when times get tough. Enjoy :)
Jesus tells twelve disciples to get into a boat and go to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. While they are embarking on this adventure, He climbs up on a nearby mountainside and begins to pray. From a perched position, he sees the disciples either hours later, halfway across the lake, struggling in the middle of a storm and decides He is going to help them. [Now if this were you or me, we would need to buy or rent another boat in order to get out to where the disciples are located. But Jesus isn’t limited the way that we are limited.] Instead, He takes one step and begins to stand on the surface of the lake. Soon, by putting one foot in front of another, he walks across the water in the direction of the disciples.
[Now I know that at this point, I may have lost some of you and you have begun to distance yourself intellectually from me and doubt my credibility. You start to disconnect from the story and the possibility that someone can walk on the surface of a lake. I completely understand that tension. I think that as we grow up, in an attempt to make God more believable and more powerful to society at large, we have inadvertently “shrunk” him down. Sometimes we even condense Him and cram Him into the rooms and walls of churches, believing that He only lives and inhabits buildings with stained glass and steeples. But God refuses to be defined; He refuses to fit into a box; He refuses to be limited by the laws of nature. He does, in fact, have the power to do the things that we cannot.]
……..When the disciples see Jesus, they think it must be a ghost. In other words, their response is similar to ours, in that they’ve never seen anyone walk on water. Therefore, it’s not possible- it can’t be a person! Jesus replies, “Don’t be afraid. Take courage. I am here.” Peter says, “Lord if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water”. “Come”, Jesus says. Peter stepped out of the boat, walked on water, and came to Jesus. But when Peter saw the wind of the storm, he became afraid, loss trust in Jesus, and began to sink. He cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus reached out his hand, pulled Peter out of the water, and said, “You lost faith in me, Peter. Why did you doubt?”
When Peter realizes that it is Jesus walking on the surface of the lake, he has two options, he can respond in fear, or he can respond in faith. If Peter had responded to Jesus in fear, he would have experienced regret; if he had listened to the other 11 disciples who thought he was crazy for leaving the boat, he would’ve stayed in the boat and later experienced the regret of wondering “What if I had just crawled out of the boat and walked on water? I could have been the first person to do such an impossible thing!” But instead, Peter chose to respond in faith, and so he was rewarded. By being the first and only person to ever walk on water, this had to be one of the greatest moments of his life! And indeed it was because he chose to walk by faith and not by sight.
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When YOU are faced with choices in life, no matter what kind of situation it may be, you are always going to appear foolish to someone, no matter what you decide to do. Every choice you make, you can decide whether to look foolish in the eyes of the world, or choose to look foolish in the eyes of God. Let’s apply this to a real-life situation with, say, relationships. You forgive someone who has hurt you deeply. You may possibly have friends and family who think that is foolish; they’re going to tell you to look out for yourself and guard your heart. But let’s say you don’t forgive that person, you hold a grudge and you get resentful. God might look at you and say, “As much as I have forgiven you, you’re not going to forgive this person?”
At some point in your life, you have to decide, do you want to look foolish in the eyes of the world or do you want to look foolish in the eyes of God? You have the choice to walk in faith, and by doing so, God will reward you. Trust this: He is not going to let you sink in times of trouble.
Thanks for reading :) xoxo
