Introduction to Peace
We live in a society that applauds consistency. Consistency is key, right? Perhaps looking to the Father can provide us with another perspective. While God is consistent in showing up and being present for His children the how is often left up to question. One moment He’s in the bush, the next a cloud, and the next on top of a mountain, oh and let’s not forget in the middle of a raging storm. God’s dependability is sure but His predictability not so much. I am constantly experiencing God in new ways but in a world where consistency is the new rat race to success, it can be easy to crave a formula more than an experience. Formulas guarantee results and experiences do not. Yet the formulas that God can be found in look quite different than the ones we more commonly hear about. Consider Matthew 7: 7-8 …
“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” NLT
There are other scriptures that lead to this same concept of continuing to seek the Lord. The pressure to be consistent in a way that earns the applause of the world is too often a misplaced effort that can instead be redirected and focused on asking, seeking, and knocking. To truly experience God is transformative and can happen in some of the most unexpected places.
Peter gets a bad rep for beginning to drown after walking on water. The story is laid out in detail in Matthew 14:22-33. Oh his little faith, oh he got distracted, oh Peter this and Peter that. But if Peter had followed the mold of consistency he never would have been bold enough to ask. If he had followed the mold of consistency he never would have been bold enough to throw his leg over the edge of the boat and allow his body to leave what the other disciples clung to. Consistency would have told Peter to stay in his lane and consistency would have told him to fight to get back in that boat instead of calling out to the Lord.
Is consistency bad? No. I think this is the struggle with introducing concepts that challenge our norms because we so quickly want to categorize them as either good or bad. While those categories are prominent they are not the only ones in every scenario. Are you so consistent that you miss the opportunity to be with God?
Peter was distracted mid-victory. The storm was there to offer a new experience. A new way to experience a storm and a new way to experience God’s power and right amid victory he was distracted by what had been consistent. The storm is the constant in this storyline. It was storming while they were on the boat, storming while Jesus was walking toward them, and storming when Peter stepped out. Walking on that water had never been done before so it was new but storms? Sure this group of men had seen a storm before. Consistency can create a sense of normalcy and Peter lost his footing when what was normal grabbed his attention. No, it wasn’t normal to be walking on the water in the storm but definitely normal to hear the thunder and feel the rain. Just as quickly as boldness, faith, curiosity, and joy swept him off his feet, distraction took hold of his feet and pulled him into the swirl he moments earlier was bold enough to overcome.
Don’t we do this very thing? Lord, I trust you. Oh wait I have to do this this way on this day to prove that I am good enough. If I wake up at 5 a.m. I’ll be successful, if I eat at noon I’ll have a consistent schedule, if I brush my teeth by 8:30 I’ll have a good nightly routine. Sure, I want you to be productive humans who fulfill God’s call for your life, but do you know what Jesus wanted from Peter and the other disciples at that moment? To be trusted. Yes, this is outside of your norm, yes it challenges all laws of science and physics, yes this storm is storming in ways that challenge your understanding of what it means to go through something but will you trust Him? Jesus fulfills Peter’s bold request by calling out in the dark for Peter to simply come to Him.
I want to challenge myself and you to step out of our routines for a moment, kick our leg over the side of that boat, and simply set our eyes on Jesus. Unbothered by the storm or the doubters but instead committed to seeing Him. This my friend is our first introduction to peace.
Things to note:
Main text: Matthew 14:22-33
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