About a week ago, David Stephens challenged us to read one chapter of the book of John per day. Day 1 came . . . and went. And I forgot to read the first chapter. Sometime around the afternoon of Day 2 I remembered and carved out some time in my schedule to read (and catch up).

I have to be honest, I’m not a big fan of the  Bible reading plans–whether it’s one chapter a day or reading through the entire Bible in a year. I know many people love those types of reading plans, but I personally found it a bit stifling in the past. However, those plans do add discipline to being devoted to the Word of God (and let’s face it, we could all use some discipline in that area of our faith!). So, I mix it up a little bit, to make it less regimented and more faith-building for myself. My approach is to ask the Holy Spirit to speak to me through just one part of the assigned reading. It could be a few words or a few sentences long, but He never fails to make just a small part of my reading jump off the page at me. On Day 6, here’s where we settled today:

Jesus Walks on Water (NLT)

¹⁶ That evening Jesus’ disciples went down to the shore to wait for him. ¹⁷ But as darkness fell and Jesus still hadn’t come back, they got into the boat and headed across the lake toward Capernaum. ¹⁸ Soon a gale swept down upon them, and the sea grew very rough.¹⁹ They had rowed three or four miles when suddenly they saw Jesus walking on the water toward the boat. They were terrified, ²⁰ but he called out to them,“Don’t be afraid. I am here!”²¹ Then they were eager to let him in the boat, and immediately they arrived at their destination!

Life is full of seasons of transition: moving from preschool to grade school, from grade school to middle/high school, college, relationships, marriage, children . . . the list goes on and on. Being in your 20′s is a state of transition. You’re technically an independent adult but may still be in school (in or out of state), living with your parents, or in-between jobs (probably trying to figure out what it is you want to do with your life). You may change your major half a dozen times. Or you may stick to one major, graduate, and then realize that’s not what you want to do at all. Or you may have no idea what to do with your degree.

 

The one thing we tend to do as human beings, is let God in on the process.

That evening Jesus’ disciples went down to the shore to wait for Him . . .

Like the first twelve, we go down to the shore to wait for Jesus–His presence, His love, His direction, His instruction. And, like the first twelve, we get impatient. When He doesn’t come to meet us according to our expectations, when the sun has set and darkness has come upon us, we bail. We get restless, afraid, insecure. And we hop into our boats and go on without Him heading home toward Capernaum.

I wonder: what would have happened if the disciples had simply waited for Jesus to return and then gotten into the boat with Him from the beginning? Would they still have encountered the gale that made sailing rough that night? Did the disciples, in a way, force Jesus’ hand by being impatient? In other words, did He have to break through their lack of devotion by walking on the water in order for them to let Him in the boat and get precisely where they needed to be? We can speculate, debate, and theorize, but we’ll never really know. At least not in this lifetime.

But here’s what we do know: with Jesus in the boat, the journey is a lot less dramatic and a lot faster.

How many times have we prolonged what God wants to do in our lives simply because we won’t allow ourselves the benefit of having Him in the boat with us?  Don’t misunderstand: God loves to show Himself strong on our behalf. And He is more than able to do so.

Job 9:8

He alone has spread out the heavens and marches on the waves of the sea.

 

But the evidence of His presence in our lives, in our hearts, should be displayed in our character, not inspite of our character. What does the evidence of Christ’s character in our lives look like? Perserverance. Being patient in the process, both with Him and with ourselves. Waiting for Him, even when we don’t feel like it.

We are all perpetually on our way SOMEWHERE. Transition is not something that we can outrun. Likewise, we cannot outrun the process of getting wherever it that we’re headed. Why not spend that time with Jesus and spare ourselves the dramatics?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 13th, 2011 at 12:01 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.