Everyone knows the story of Peter walking out to Jesus on the water (Matthew 14). It seems like every time I hear someone talk about the story the focus is always on Peter sinking and his lack of faith due to taking his eyes off of Jesus. While that is a completely valid and powerful revelation that we all need to apply… it lacks something. It lacks the redemption in the storm.

Seldom does anyone ask, “How did Peter get back into the boat?”
Ever wonder…?

The options are:

a. Jesus carried him
b. Jesus threw him
c. Peter dog-paddled
d. Jesus left then pulled the boat back around
e. He walked on the water back to the boat.

I’m thinking he walked. There is no way to know for sure but that would be my guess.

Peter did what he saw his Rabbi do and he failed; but his response in the midst of failure was what brought redemption and restoration. Peter did not turn to his friends for help. He didn’t try and swim back to the boat. He didn’t try to get back up on top of the water by himself. He cried out to Jesus (Psalm 34).

Notice Jesus’ response, “you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

He didn’t scold Peter, tell him he failed and make him swim back to the boat. He didn’t let him drown to teach him a lesson then raise him from the dead. The question was not to crush Peter, but to raise a valid question of who Jesus was in light of the storm. It was another way of Jesus asking, “who do you say that I am?” The confession that came from Peter’s mouth came in the form of a prayer, “Lord save me!” It did not look consistent with his current self induced predicament of sinking due to lack of faith in Jesus. Jesus had authority over the elements because he created them and he was making a point.

In the Jewish culture at that time the students of the rabbi’s were not only expected to do what they saw their rabbi’s do, but were expected to be able to do what they did as well… even if it meant walking on water. So when Jesus said, “you of little faith, why did you doubt?” He was empowering Peter. If the rabbi walks on water you can too. If the rabbi tells the storm to die down, then you can too.

Remember the voice of Redemption when your sinking.

Next time you fall, you blow it, you feel overcome by doubt, lack of faith and anxiety that you are drowning and there is know way out… call upon your Savior, your Redemption, your Rabbi, and remember that if he walks on the water then you can too

It a was slower Saturday morning when the man stopped in to grab a couple of drinks. He was telling me that the bought and flipped houses and that they were only two homes away from having their dream house. During the conversation he also told me of how his wife had been stricken with lime disease a couple of years before and had been mostly incapacitated because of it. I came out from behind the bar and told him that what I was about to ask him was a bit unorthodox. “Are you a Christian”” I asked. He said, “yes… me and my wife both.” I told him of how in the scriptures Paul calls us citizens of heaven and how Jesus told us to pray that it would be on earth as it is in heaven. I explained that there are no people in heaven with lime disease so that’s how we were going to pray. He said, “okay” with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. We prayed a short 15 second prayer, “Jesus, we plead your healing blood over his wife. You told us to pray let it be on earth as it is in heaven. There are no sick people in heaven with lime disease. She is citizen of heaven. Let it be on heaven as it is on earth and there be no lime disease in her body. In Jesus’ name amen.” He looked very touched and blessed and went on his way.

About six weeks went by the same man came into the store. I was working on something with my head down when I heard a manager ask the man, “Can I help you sir?” “I’d like to speak to him,” he said pointing at me. It was busy and My manager, a Muslim barista, and the other customers were all listening when he said with tears in his eyes, “I came in six weeks ago and you prayed for my wife. She had lime disease for two years and has not been able to play with my daughter and just be a mom. Since the day you prayed for her she has been a new woman and has not one symptom of lime disease in her body.”

A few more months went by and a little girl came up to me at the store and said, “Hey mister…” I looked down to see this cute little five or six year old girl. ”Yes, sweetie,” I said. “thanks you for praying for my mommy.” She turned and ran back to her dad. He looked at me never approached me but again with a grin on his face and teary eyes he mouthed the words thank you.

It was that moment that I realized that there was a good chance that many of the children that ran to Jesus to hug him could have been thanking him for healing their parents, making them see, walk, hear, or even raising them from the dead.

It was a weekday afternoon and the Starbucks I worked at was empty when a woman came in to grab a quick drink. I over heard her talking to one of the other baristas as she was buying a teddy bear. All I heard was the teddy bear was for her daughter and that she was in the hospital. I’m not sure what came over me, but I was irritated. As I watched her walk back out to the car to her husband I knew that I could not let them drive away without praying for their daughter. I quickly came out from behind the counter and ran out to their car as they were driving away waiving them down. They rolled down the window and I said, “I know this seems strange, but I heard you say your daughter is in the hospital and its not right. I’d like to pray for your daughter if that’s okay.” They looked at me surprised. They had a 6 month old in the back seat. They explained to me that that their three year old was in the hospital. I began praying for the daughter then the married couple. As I was praying for them I said, “in two days you are going to have a divine appointment with a woman that you have never met and two or three days after that she will set you up with the first doctor that will be able to fix you daughter.” I blessed them and told them to have a good day. They seemed very thankful. However, I had no idea what I just prayed for and I especially had no idea what I meant when I said that it would be “the first doctor” that would be able to fix the daughter.

Some months went by when on a busy week day as I was cleaning tables a man came stood up from his table to stop me and said, “Hi there. You’re the face of the guy who prays for people right?” I had never heard it put that way, but I said, “ Sure..” He said, “I don’t know how to adequately thank you.” He probably said that phrase ten times over the next few minutes. He went on, “About six months ago my wife came in here to get a teddy bear for our daughter. We don’t even live over here. We just decided to go for a drive out of frustration and some how ended up at this coffee shop. We were going to head over to the hospital. You see our daughter had been on a feeding tube since birth. We had taken her to multiple doctors and specialist and no one could fix her. We didn’t know what to do. We had given up on everything including the Lord and were at our wits end. When you prayed for us and our daughter it so shocked us and blessed us that we gave our hearts back to the Lord right there. Then two days later we had a divine appointment with a woman we had never met, then two days after that we she set us up with the first doctor in three years that was able to fix our daughter.”

Praise the Lord. I don’t have all the answers for why the Lord heals one way one day and another the next. All I know is that the girl couldn’t eat on her own, the prophetic word was spoken, and now she can. Again and again…praise the Lord!

A friend of mine once went on a hunting trip with his dad and uncles. It was his “become a man trip.” They sat up late at night in a cabin telling heroic football and basketball stories stroking their ego and reliving the good ol’ days. They got up early and each went their way to their posts with their rifles and camo to wait for the deer they had been tracking that fall. My friend sat in his tree waiting when a doe walked out into the open. Nervous he put her in the scope and pulled the trigger. The deer dropped to the ground, but not dead. All the men came to the spot smiling to see the kill. His dad told him to finish her. The young boy took out his knife and cut her throat. He did it. When he stood back up his dad put his hand on his shoulder and said, “now you’re a man.” They all hi fived him and patted him on the back. He smiled on the outside, but was in agony inside. If that is what being a man was supposed to be, then he wanted nothing to do with it.

Growing up you always hear of some, “he’s a great man,” or “what a man of God.” It always seems that somewhere in your life you will cross the threshold of boyhood to manhood. No one ever tells you where that is, when it is, or what it looks like. That’s because no one knows. You’re always waiting for that day that you feel like a man. We think we’re supposed to be bigger, more sturdy, and that some where inside of us we will be more confident and sure of our every wise decision, that we will be able to make anything happen any where, and that nothing is out of our reach or realm of knowledge. We think we’re supposed to be Superman. The truth is we will have those moments, but 98% of the time we feel like Clark Kent.

Let me take the pressure off of you. You don’t have to be superman all the time. There. I said it. Do you feel better? Good. Someone needed to tell you. Otherwise you would keep walking around feeling like everything you do is a failure.

There is never a point that you come to, a line that you cross, or a moment in time that you become a man. Where you are in life does not make you a man. What you’ve done does not make you a man. Why, because you never become a man, but are always becoming.

Becoming a man is not a destination, but a road traveled. It’s not a glorious road laden with riches and tales of greatness (though they may come). It’s not a road filled with travelers that can always tell you the way (though you will certainly find some). It’s the road less traveled, laid by mercy, paved with grace, and forged by Love. It teaches humility, and it is humility that gives us confidence to keep walking.

Its no wonder that the majority of men in America base their measure of success by how much money they make each year, what car they drive, and how big of a house they live in. No one has ever given them another way to be measured. The measuring stick for men is not a bank account, an engine, or job title… it’s the Cross.

The Cross is the most simplistically complex thing in all of history. It is our destination and beginning. It speaks of defeat and victory, surrender and embrace, violence and compassion, death and life, judgment and mercy, accusation and truth, selfishness and selflessness. There is not one area of a man’s life that cannot and will not be measured by this eternal icon.

What makes it so immovable is not the wood it was made out of or the time in which it was established, but the Man that hung on it. It was Christ the Man who first walked the road less traveled. With every step down that road he gave us victory over every area of our lives as sons, friends, husbands, and fathers.

Many men make the mistake of measuring their manhood by their fathers, mentors, and friends. There is only one Man to measure yourself by, and you probably don’t even know how he measures you. Each of those men in your life that you look up to are not you, and you are definitely not them. You were not made to be. God did not mess up on you and get it right with them. I guarantee you for every area of their life that you admire; there are two that you would not if you knew about them. They may not even be bad things, but just not they way you would do them. THAT’S OKAY.

If our goal for manhood is anything less that Christ than we will fall short of our potential and our destiny. Did you ever hear a basket ball player say, “man if I could only be like Tony Brown then that would be great?” No. Why? Because he rode the bench for the 1985 Chicago bulls. But how many basket ball players wanted to be Michael Jordan, who was also on that team? I know you can’t compare Michael Jordan to Christ, but the point remains. Why would you set your goal for anything less than the greatest?

The amazing part is that Man that is our goal did not set himself upon a pedastool that we hopelessly reach for knowing inside that we will never get there. He did the opposite. He came down from His throne, put on flesh forever, and put the same spirit in us that gave him strength to live Holy unto the Father day in and day out.

Our Goal became our Grace by becoming a Man…

He chose Nazareth. “Could anything good come out of Nazareth?” He would forever answer that question. Why would he choose a place that was as poor and forgotten as this town? He would receive no recognition for his accomplishments. He would not be noticed at all. Day after day he would say yes to living in Nazareth; day after day he would say yes to the Father. It was the thirty years of saying yes in Nazareth that prepared in him to say yes in Gethsemane.
Many people want to say yes to the Lord in the place of martyrdom, but do not want to say yes to the Lord in the mundane things of life. They aren’t willing to say yes to living where the Lord has called them to live, or working the job they are called to work and they expect themselves to say yes in the bigger things or even be asked to do the bigger things.
Jesus said yes to being hidden, submitting the law of the Pharisees he would later rebuke, working as a carpenter in small town that needed little business, learning the law that he had written, and submitting to the parents that he had chosen. It was saying yes 10,000 times when no one was watching that prepared his heart to say yes when the salvation of humanity was hanging in the balance. If you’ll say yes to Nazareth, you’ll yes in Gethsemane

This is my first blog post. Thank you all for visiting and please stay connected with us through spikenard.org as well. We just had powerful trip up to Shekinah Camp in Wisconsin. We were blessed to be apart of what the Lord is doing in the students and the leaders and look forward to partnering with all of you again in ministry soon!