If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat

Hey! Anna here : ) I’m so sorry I forgot the password last week so I could not post. lol! OK so before I start this post I would like to say WOW Abby your doing an amazing job I really enjoy reading your posts!! :)

Alright so I don't really have anything to say, so here is some stuff from a book I'm reading. If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat – John Ortberg:

See a middle-aged man who spends his nights sitting in front of a television set watching whatever sport happens to be on cable. He was once all fired up with bright plans for the future and strong yearnings to make his mark on this world. But somewhere along the line all the fire went out and he settled for comfort. His dreams were sacrificed to a La-Z-Boy and flickering images on a screen. He is the story of unrealized potential.

This is a way that leads to stagnation-unrealized potential, unfilled longings. It leads to a sense that I’m not living my life; the one I was supposed to live. It leads to boredom, to what Gregg Levoy calls the common cold of the soul.

To sinful patterns of behavior that never get confronted and changed,
Abilities and gifts that never get cultivated and deployed –
Until weeks become months
And months turn into years,
And one day you're looking back on a life of
Deep intimate gut-wrenchingly honest conversations you never had;
Great bold prayers you never prayed,
Exhilarating risks you never took,
Sacrificial gifts you never offered
Lives you never touched,
And you’re sitting in a recliner with a shriveled soul,
And forgotten dreams,
And you realize there was a world of desperate need,
And a great God calling you to be part of something bigger than yourself-
You see the person you could have become but did not;
You never followed your calling.
You never got out of the boat.

There is no tragedy like the tragedy of the unopened gift. Garrison Keillor tells a story called “A Day in the of Clarence Bunsen,” about an older man who realizes the years have slipped away and his life has missed something. Clarence goes to see Father Emil at Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility for some advice, Normally Clarence goes to the Lutheran church, but he wants a second opinion. When that doesn’t help, he walks past his old school and climbs the hill overlooking Lake Webegon, where he and his friends played as kids years ago, While he is reflecting on his life, Clarence hears some kids coming up the path. For some strange reason he runs ahead of them and climbs an old tree he remember from childhood. The kids stop right under his tree; they know he’s around somewhere but don’t think to look up. Clarence knew that if he dropped down on them or even yelled “Ha!” they would jump out of their shoes. He watches them so full of excitement and life, and thinks to himself,

I wish I could be like that. I just seem to go through life with my eyes closed and my ears shut. People talk to me, and I don’t even hear them. Whole days go by, and I can’t remember what happened. The woman I’ve lived with for thirty-six years, if you asked me to describe her, I’d have to stop and think about it. It’s like I’ve lived half my life waiting for my life to begin, thinking it’s somewhere off in the future, and now I’m thinking about death all the time. It’s time to live, to wake up and do something

And he jumped and yelled, “Hayee!” Oh, those boys exploded out of there, like birds. And he yelled, “Haah!” And then he said, “Ouch! Ouch!” They came back to where he was sitting and asked, “You all right Uncle Clarence?” He replied. “Yes, But go down and tell Mrs. Bunsen to bring the car up to the gravel road. I’ll meet her by the mailbox,” He crawled a hundred yard over to the road. She picked him up and didn’t ask what happened… This is the tragedy of the unopened gift: It’s as if I’ve lived half my life waiting for life to begin, thinking it’s somewhere off in the future. As Thoreau hauntingly put it, “I did not wish to live what was not life.. I wanted to live deep and suck all the marrow of life.”

Getting Out Of The Boat
1. What’s your boat? Where is fear or comfort keeping you from trusting God?
2. In what area do you need discernment to know to know if you’re really being called to get out of the boat?
3. What’s one risk you can take in your life that could help your faith to grow:
a. Stand up for a value you believe in during a tough conversation?
b. Express affection ever thought it may be hard for you?
c. Take on a challenge that you know will stretch you?
4. What’s one failure from your past that haunts you? What trusted friend can you share it with as a step in robbing it of its power?
5. Where are you in relation to Jesus these days?
a. Huddled in the boat with a life preserver and the seat belt on
b. One leg in, one leg out
c. I’m walking on the water-and loving it
d. I’m out of the boat-but the wind looks pretty bad