Sink or Swim?

Recently, I took the opportunity to get away to spend some alone time with the Lord, to hopefully listen and hear what I needed to hear from Him.  I try to do this from time to time, as there is just so much noise in my life and other distractions.  This particular time, I chose to combine my time with God with my favorite pastime, fishing.

So, for a few hours I was on a lake fishing, or I should say pretending to fish as I only caught one small crappie the whole time.  I really would have liked to catch something, but I was actually annoyed; because, it was actually a distraction from being able to focus on why I was actually there.  The wind was a bit brisk and kept taking me towards the shore and I found myself worrying about getting caught up in the weeds, or the fallen trees, or being run ashore.  So, finally, I just took myself out to the middle of the lake, where I knew I could go for a long time without worrying about those things.

I was better able to focus and my mind went to the story of Jesus walking on water found in Matt. 14.  At first, I was wondering if God wanted me to step out on the water, but I thought better of it.  Instead, I felt led to ask some questions about this narrative.  You have to admit, it is a little bit Hollywood-ish for Jesus.  What was His point?  It made sense to me to look at the context.

Jesus had just heard of the beheading of John the Baptist, His cousin.  His initial response was to withdraw “to a desolate place by Himself;” but, the crowds showed up and Jesus “had compassion on them.”  He began to heal them and then, He fed them.  Finally, at some point, Jesus sent the crowds away and “made the disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side.”

The disciples were already a bit troubled by the news that John had been beheaded and, no doubt, wondered if theirs might be forthcoming.  Then, to top it off, they were hit by a storm, one that appeared to be pretty fierce, even for a seasoned fisherman.  And then, they see Jesus walking towards them…on the water!  Why?

In the events that follow, we see impetuous Peter inviting himself out to do what Jesus was doing.  All goes well for a while, but he soon begins to sink and Jesus has to rescue him.  Then, the storm was over, and the disciples “worshipped Him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’”

So many lessons are contained in this passage of Scripture.  You could easily find 5 or 6 life lessons or principles.  I don’t know that any one is more important than the other, but I would like to list a few.

1.  If you keep your eyes on Jesus, you won’t sink.

2.  f you take your eyes off of Jesus and are distracted by the storms in your life, just call out and He will rescue you.  No problem.

3.  Most of us are not ready to walk on water for any length of time, but that shouldn’t stop us from taking the risk.

4.  No matter what the storm, Jesus is always there to give us confidence.  Even when He had His own personal grief to contend with, He took the time out to meet the needs of the crowd, and He gave the disciples reason to believe, to trust, and to continue to follow Him. 

If there are storms in your life, whether they be personal need, life-threatening circumstances, or other fears, Jesus is there for you; and He invites you to come out and walk on the water with Him.  Just keep your eyes on Him.

Godspeed, Phil

 

How would you like your criticism?

Seems like a stupid question.  No one likes criticism, do they?  But, then again, why does it bother us so much?  A couple months ago, I asked a small group of men that I met with weekly, if they would criticize me.  Actually, I asked them for feedback.  I told them I thought they knew me well enough that they should be able to tell me what they didn’t like about me, or at least, what areas of my life they thought I should be working on to be a better follower of Christ.

They found it very difficult to think of anything; not because I was such a great guy, but because they weren’t prepared for the question.  The truth is we choose to spend our time with people that appear to enjoy being around us, people that we assume like us.  One way we continue to be able to spend time with these people is that we continue to focus on those things that we have in common, or that we value or like in each other.  We don’t typically look for the things that we don’t like, or if there are such things, we don’t dwell on them.

It’s true in most of the relationships we are in.  We form our relationships, in the first place, around places where we can easily connect.  Ask yourself, have you ever deliberately decided to spend more time hanging out with people you don’t like?  Why would you do that?  It would make you miserable.  If there are differences, we tend to overlook those; if there are enough commonalities; we don’t want to risk losing the relationship.

Yet in Scripture, we are encouraged not to ignore these differences, especially if these are areas of sin in our brother’s life (Gal. 6:1-2; etc.).  We are told there is benefit to doing this.  In Prov. 9:7-12, Solomon suggests that reproof taken well will lead to wisdom and further learning.

So, why do we despise criticism?  Because it isn’t always constructive.  We allow it to affect our self-esteem, our sense of worth, to impact our initiative and our motivation.  I love this quote from Eleanor Roosevelt, “No one can make you feel inferior without your permission.”  Criticism is not the culprit, it is what we do with it, how we handle it.

In Oswald Sanders’ book, “Spiritual Leadership,” he warns against defending ourselves.  He cites the response of Samuel Brengle to his critics, “I thank you for your criticism of my life.  It set me to self-examination and heart-searching and prayer, which always leads me into a deeper sense of my utter dependence on Jesus for holiness of heart, and into sweeter fellowship with Him.”  Sanders’ encouragement is to turn a “curse into a blessing, a liability into an asset.”

We can also look at Paul and his handling of criticism.  To the Corinthians, Paul wrote, “I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court…It is the Lord who judges me (I Cor. 4:3-4).”  As Sanders notes, “Independence from human opinion can be a valuable asset to the person whose life goal is the glory of God.”

How would you like your criticism…rare or well done?

 

Godspeed, Phil