Last weekend we had our QBC bloke’s retreat up in Lancelin and as part of that I led us in a meditative exercise using Matthew 14 and the story of Jesus walking out on the water to the disciples who are in the middle of a storm.

I always find it tricky ‘leading’ and participating fully, but I managed to enter into the ‘imaginative’ phase of this time, where we were picturing ourselves as one of the disciples and trying to see where we ‘found ourselves’ in the story.

I’ve preached on this passage a few times and its usually been one of those ‘get out of the boat’ messages. You know the one – the call to take a step of faith and keep our eyes on Jesus rather than the storm?… It suggests that we most commonly imagine ourselves as Peter in this story – or even that we should see ourselves as Peter…  but what if that isn’t the case?

As I entered into the story this time I imagined Jesus telling us all to go hop in the boat and take off while he hung around to send the crowd away and then get some alone time. In that moment I saw myself as just one of the crew, doing as I was told because he had said it. The horizon looked dark and it was probably going to be a tough journey, but oh well… He calls the shots and we just do what he says.

As we got in the boat I found myself third row back pulling an oar.  And in that space I was simply plugging away and doing what needed to be done to get the boat to its destination.  As the storm increased and it got ugly I just kept working. When Jesus appeared on the water I wasn’t at all interested in hopping out of the boat and going to see him. I was intent on staying focused – on keeping going – and not stopping.

It made me wonder why I wasn’t seeing myself as Peter, as adventurous, daring and courageous. He is the one who we hear about and who we seem to like to identify with. John Ortberg wrote that book ‘If You Want to Walk on Water You Have to Get Out of the Boat’, but no one has written ‘If You Want to Get the Other Side You Have to Keep Rowing’. It is distinctly less glamorous, but much of life is just that – keeping going and doing what is needed.

Maybe that’s a fair metaphor for my own life at the moment – leading a small church in an outer suburb, running a small business that has no dreams for world domination and being a dad and husband along the way. None of it is earth-shattering stuff, but its all good stuff. And it is the stuff I have been called to do and for now its just head down and keep rowing.

Maybe one day I get to be a ‘Peter’ again, but for now I am ‘Bartholomew’… and that’s just how it is.

And its good.