wipeout

They left the Master on the shore, and at His behest, shoved off for the far side.  The Twelve wondered what He might be doing, whenever He sent them on ahead.  It seemed especially strange this time, as there would be an immense body of water between them, and it would take the Master several days of walking to get around to the other side.  Nevertheless, they pushed on, sailing under a brooding evening sky. 

By 3 o'clock in the moring they were fighting to stay afloat, utterly at the mercy of the wind and pounding waves.  Suddenly, one of them screamed out and stuttered something about a ghost.  They all turned to see the curiously frightful fantasm.  It was the figure of a man walking through the torrent upon the surface of the water!  Somewhere deep inside himself, the one called Simon knew it was the Master.  In a fitful moment of insanity, and to the dreadful amazement of the others in the boat, he called out to ghostly figure, "Master! If it is you, bid me come."  The figure answered, "Come."

With his eyes locked onto the figure, Simon stepped over the edge of the boat, a rush of adrenaline raising goosebumps as it washed over all his senses.  To the others' amazement, he stood solidly upon the waves and began to walk.  He saw the chaos only in peripheral view, felt none of the tumult that was raging all around him.  He was engulfed by a peace that was unspeakable, maintaining his gaze upon the Master's face.  He remembered another stormy night when the Master stood in the boat and commanded the elements to be still, and the wind and waves obeyed.  Suddenly, his vision was pulled from the corner of his eye to those same angry waves, threatening him.  A speck of doubt began growing in his mind, and he felt his feet slip beneath the surface of the water.  The doubt magnified as a gust of wind smashed into his face and chest.  "Master!  Save me!" he cried out.  Reaching him at the last second before his head was submerged, the Master caught his hand, and immediately, they were in the boat.

He was doing it.  He had a rush of faith, and with a step into the madness that put a smile on the Master's face, he was doing the impossible!  But what happened? 

"Why did you doubt?"  The question resounds through the ages into the hearts of men and women of our day.  So many people have met the Master, stepped directly into the madness rocking their world, and walked right through untouched, unscathed, unphased, as long as their attention remained on the Master.  When out of the peace that surrounded them a wave of doubt broke in, recasting the worry and care they had previously tossed away, and they bailed on it all.

We all wipe out.  Something always seems to creep into the midst of the peace of a concentrated walk with the Lord Jesus that takes our eyes off Him, and throws us off balance.  An unexpected sickness, an imperfect relationship going suddenly worse, an unexpected loss.  They hit us in the face like a freezing gust of wind, we look away from Him, and begin to wonder what in the world we are doing way out here away from anything deemed reasonable by the others, and BAM!!!  We totally wipeout!  We give creedence to that petulant, knocking doubt, and the foaming sea of our circumstances floods over us.  As awesome as the places the Lord takes us are, as great as a ministry becomes, as mind-blowing the impossibilities we overcome through Him, every life is ultimately reduced to the words of Simon Peter as He began sinking in doubt:  "Master!  Save me!"

He is all we have.  There is no Salvation in all the miraculous endeavors.  There is no real strength in any of us, nor goodness at all.  There is only us and the Lord, walking, talking, loving, sharing our lives with each other, with those in need of Him.  It is only by His eternally invincible and steadfast grip upon us that we can even exist.  His eyes roam continuously about the earth, looking to strengthen those whose hearts desire nothing but His glory gushing through us for the world to see.  Failure will roar.  The Defeated one will try to toss us with fatigue, overwhelming depression, fear, and doubt.  But in the midst of it all, if we but cry out to Him, the Master of the tempest, a new and deeper knowledge of his mighty love and peace will grip us even tighter.  We will truly know the Salvation of the Lord as we stand safely on the other side.  He truly holds us always, in the palm of His hand, and more so when we can see nothing of it.  Never stop trusting.  Cry out to Jesus.