The Fear of the Water

The Fear of the Water

7/11/13

Most of humanity lives on the dry land and with an exception or two of certain cultures this presumption stands true.  Land is a safe place to be because it provides us with a solid foundation in which for us to walk and live.  We can include anything that is solid that is under our feet in this classification, but it is the water that is where the unknown is located.  And is being on dry land the type of place that we need to be in Christ?  God calls us to do many things and if we are listening to His calling the things that He asks us to do usually is away from our comfort zones.

Does anyone remember reading the cartoon of a person that is all alone on a small island with water surrounding the small island like it is supposed to be?  The cartoon also predicts that no other life forms can be seen with the human eye with the exception of the sharks that are swimming around the island and from the appearance of the cartoon the island is in no path of any vessel or airplane route?  However, the cartoon always has the person on land where it is dry and safe even though they are alone.  I find it ironic that even though the person is on dry land and seems safe from the perils of the water, he is all alone and is not free to function in a normal manner.

Remember the movie “Castaway?” where the plane that the man was on crashed into the sea and he washed up on shore on a deserted island?  He lived there for years and did not see any type of life form that approached the island.  Finally he decided to build a raft and to cast off of the island by choosing to leave his safe ground and risk it all by casting himself on the ocean.  Eventually a ship passed by and found him and after years of waiting he was rescued.  He had finally realized that his present circumstance was not going to get him back home and that he needed to make himself known to the watery world in order to complete this task.  He had to take a huge risk so that he might be saved.

There is a song that I have listened to for a while now and every time I hear the music and words it comforts me to know that God loves me enough to provide safety and peace when storms arrive.  The name of the song is Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) and it is a powerful Kingdom song.  When one hears this song I would “guestimate” that the majority of the people cannot help but to imagine that God would place our feet back on solid ground, dry ground in this case, to steady our hearts.  But this is not the case in that God will steady our hearts in the place that we are at as long as we have obeyed His will and are doing what He has commanded us to do.  The song speaks about how God will protect us while we are in areas that our feet may fail, in other words in places that we are not comfortable in or that our footing can be taken away from us at any moment.  Being a human being we can find ourselves living in this situation many times in one month even in one day as well.  So, even in the midst of a huge storm God is truly with us and providing us with His solid ground.

Some of us may remember the story in the Bible of when Peter and some others were in a boat and they were in the midst of a storm.  They looked out on the water and they saw a person walking on the water and who was coming towards them.  At first the person was hard to recognize but within a few moments Peter knew that it was Jesus.  Now there are a bunch of things that are in play in this scene and some of them I am not going to address in this article but please keep in mind all of the events of this story as you continue to read. 

The most intriguing aspect of the story that the story provides is where Peter gets out of the boat and then goes out to see Jesus and the fact of the miracle of Peter walking on the water as Jesus was doing.  The other part of this event that we use is that as long as Peter had his eyes fixed on Jesus he stayed above water and when he didn’t then things got wet.  These two aspects of the scene are very, very important and are usually the two aspects that most sermons are based upon; however, these examples are not what I am going to use in this article.

The portion that I am going to share to you concerns the stepping out of the sound ground and into the water where our feet are not on solid ground.  No one would argue that a boat is not considered to be solid ground; in fact the word solid only can be used on shaky terms if one wishes to be specific.  But in this case Peter and all of the other occupants in the boat, we all understand are congregated within this boat so technically the solid foundation that is beneath them does represent the ground.  But the boat is made of wood and when the wood is placed tightly together and joined together properly it can serve as a solid foundation even though it is not on dry land.  A logical question would be if a person is in a boat would they feel safer inside the boat or in the water?  I guess the answer to that would have to include the surrounding atmospheric conditions.

Peter being a fisherman was used to boats and was comfortable in boats because that was his trade and he was around these settings all the time.  Without boats Peter could not make a living for his family and for others who depended upon him for his catches of the day.  Since the use of modern cars and other transportation systems were not in place, boats were the main transportation services used to cross vast areas of waterways and thus would be crowded at times.  In other words when boats were in proper use they were filled with a certain amount of people who depended upon the safety of the boat to accomplish the task at hand.

I am going to use the boat and use it as an example of the Church and of the human heart.  First of all the boat is an excellent example of the Church in the fact that it can represent salvation or safe haven to many who are present within its confines.  Many people believe that just being a part of a church is a guarantee of shelter from life and the sin nature that plagues mankind.  This concept and belief is far from the truth, yet even understanding this belief to be a lie we continue sitting inside the boat looking at the world (water) and feeling comfortable about not having to swim in the waters of the world.  Even though we may be frightened and upset with the current atmospheric conditions that are jostling the boat from side to side, our comfort level is far greater inside the boat than outside the boat.  So in this case it is easier to sit inside the dimensions of the boat and wait until the storm passes and hope that everyone on the outside of the boat will come inside the boat on their own.

There is a time when people need to be comforted within the confines of the church and it is a normal reaction to go into the church when times are tough.  Yet the difference is that in order for the church to be effective in its mission the people have to be out in the world on a constant basis, teaching the people that there is one who can help them and to provide for them a spiritual peace during these times.  However, while using the boat as a place of refuge when the designated time approaches is a necessity it does not represent the only time that we need to direct our attentions to this spiritual seating arrangement.

The second example of the boat that I am talking about is the symbolic version of the heart whereas like the Church the heart becomes content with its surroundings and will stay in one place while our journey continues its course.  Mankind does no function without the heartbeat within her / him and whatever movements that we decide to do the heartbeat will increase in order to supply the necessary nutrients and blood supply to accomplish the job requested.  So the heart can represent a steady and slow resting beat when not doing anything “exciting.”   And like the Church once again if the other people in the same boat are acting accordingly then they too will be like the old adage of being in the same boat as you, which means comfortable and content with your current surroundings.

If one has been associated with a church or has been in church for a long period of time, these people should be able to recognize different atmospheres that each church gives to people.  It does not take a person long to understand what the specific functions of that church are and where their spiritual heart lies.  And if a person stays within this newly accepted church setting then their spiritual heart will beat according to their surroundings.

Now let us look at Jesus for a moment and where He was located during this story.  Was he in the boat for this event?  Was He late for the boat when it left its port?  No on both accounts, for He was on the water where the trouble was brewing; right in the middle of the storm which represents where the people that need God in their lives are located if you symbolically use the water as the world conditions again.  I find the wordage that Jesus was walking on the water towards the boat in such an interesting manner for this signifies that Jesus was actively present and being active in the world as well and not hiding from it within the confines of the boat.  I also find it interesting that if you keep the analogy of the water and the boat going that He had to go through the world to reach the Church and shouldn’t that be the opposite case?

I have heard hundreds of times a phrase that goes something like this, “Jesus sure did show up in church today” Or “the presence of the Holy Spirit was powerful in church today.”  These are fabulous sayings to hear from people who understand the power and the presence of God and it really does mean something to others when these types of phrases are being said around town.  But, if these people recognize that God showed up today that means that one could also mean that He had to come into the building, correct?  That means that it is a logical explanation that God is out where the hurting people are, or in this example where the storm is located.  Isn’t the mission of the Church to go to the world and preach the gospel?  This example does say that Jesus will come into the church and fill the building with His presence, however, how will He view your existence on the pews while He is completing His work in others’ lives?

Now let us look at Peter once again who was sitting in the boat.  There really was no storm around and there was not too much mentioned about the conditions of the waters in this scene so we can roughly assume that the waters were calm.  However, it was still water and we can become nervous when the thought of anything going wrong with the boat runs through our minds, and for someone to voluntarily get out of the boat and land into the water places things into an entirely new ballgame.  I find it also interesting that there were many people in that boat and only one person left the boat to greet Jesus.  The others remained in the boat and even after they witnessed what occurred, they continued to stay within the confines of the boat. 

Do you find that this detail about the story odd or commonplace?  I find it commonplace and if one takes a good look at the condition of the modern church of today, that person would understand that the church (boat) inhabitants are performing the same ritualistic sitting around and waiting for the savior to appear in their so called solid groundings.  Now, one has to keep in mind that the people in the boat were not new converts, but they were His disciples which baffles the mind to think that not all of them would have done the same thing as Peter.  This is a great example of how even though there are many people who have been in church all of their lives continue to miss the actual presence and authority of God and everything that He represents to, in and through our lives.

So Peter sees Jesus coming towards him and he leaps out of the boat and begins to walk on the water just as Jesus did.  The inhabitants of the boat must have believed that Peter was absolutely nuts to get out of the safe area and tread towards Jesus, who is coming in the boat’s direction anyway.  The others must have been flabbergasted when they witnessed that Peter was not sinking or had sunk into the water but was actually walking on the water as Jesus.  So once again the question of why didn’t more of the people in the boat at least attempt to get out of the boat and go towards Jesus?

Peter takes the initiative to get out of the boat and go towards Jesus.  He knows that Jesus is approaching and sees what Jesus is doing.  He also must have realized that Jesus was not physically in the boat either and that He was out on the water.  While this might seem as a “duh” moment in the fact that it says that Jesus was on the water we might forget about what that means.  Jesus was not sitting in Church he was out with the people of the world.  Don’t you find the fact that Jesus called Peter to come to Him out on the water; why would anyone do this?  Jesus recognizes that we are in the Church where it is safe and He understands that we cannot be effective for Him if we continue in this manner.  Jesus could have called the entire crew that was in the boat to come and meet Him, but He chose only one to make a point that everyone has the opportunity to go to where Jesus is on their own and that they do not have to wait until Jesus comes along by their side.

By the way, our enemy knows and understands this concept as well and as long as we continue to sit in the pews (wooded area in the boat) and do not participate in the activities that Jesus commanded us to complete in the world then guess what….we will sail right over the world and not reach one person for Christ.  Yes, our boat probably will complete its journey and be “seen” in the world, but what will our image be if we just sit back, cross the storm and watch others perish as we coast by them.  I have a really hard time with that philosophy yet it is a common activity that is being submitted to the storms of the world by the Church; and our enemy absolutely loves this from us.

We must follow in Peter’s steps and get out of the boat and go into the water with Christ, for it is Christ who has the authority and power to change lives not us.  Jesus is not in the boat folks he is out in the water waiting for you to respond to His calling in order to save a dying world.  It is time that we initiate the adrenaline of our spiritual hearts so that we may once again climb out of the church boat and place our feet on failing surfaces so that we can be a witness to the world.  This action by our lives takes faith and it takes love for a dying world to accomplish, and if we complete this command from God we will find that this action, not the human action but God’s action in others, automatically strengthens the relationship that we have in Christ as well, which in turn advances the Kingdom of God. 

People have said for centuries that it is their desire to be where Jesus is and this is a true statement for those who believe in Him.  Nor would any soul argue the fact that they believe that the presence of Jesus is in the local church building and that people do sense His presence.  But why do we struggle with the fact that Jesus could be on the street corner or in a bar or in a movie theatre?  Why does the church struggle with the fact of going out to these places and just sitting there and wait for people to come over and ask why you are there?  People are curious by nature and God knows this and will use this human quality to accomplish what we need in our lives; this type of activity takes place and it happens for a reason.  The world is looking for answers and we need to realize that their first place to seek out this answer is NOT a church building.  If it was the bars and all the sidewalk activity would have ceased by now and every church would be having four services every Sunday morning.

Peter loved Jesus enough to have what it takes to step out of the boat and go towards Him.  That is all God is asking of us today as well.  Will we step out of the boat and to display the love that God has for the lost world and will we have it in our hearts to take the initiative to reach these people.  As usual you will see more people inside the boat than in the water but the ones who are in the water have overcame the fear of their confines and are obeying the call of God.  It is ok for us to out of the boat and standing in the water.  Yes, there will be those who ridicule you for your stance and actions but this type of response from others is of no concern if only one person is reached while you are out on the water.  Jesus will always be on the water when it comes to the dying world and the question is where will you be?  Will you lose your fear of the water?

DLB