Being Peter

One of the things we Christians hear over and over again is to live boldly for Christ. It's impressed upon us to courageously answer God's call - no matter how crazy it might seem - with a resounding yes! We're taught that God wants us to put our trust in Him, so even if we think what He's asking us to do is impossible or hard or scary or will take a whole lot of work, we should trust He's got us and will carry us through.

So we volunteer to teach Sunday School. And we volunteer to sing in the choir. And we take meals to the new mama and the new widow and we pat ourselves on the back and feel good about all that we are accomplishing in God's name.

And none of that is bad. In fact, it's all very good and very necessary and very appreciated. But, well, how radical is a chicken casserole really? How far out of our safe, comfortable life have we gone for Christ?

There's a story in the Bible where this guy, Peter, is out doing his job: fishing. Day in and day out Peter catches fish to pay the bills. He's got himself a boat and some nets - the things he needs to do his job. He's made his investment, now he's working on making his profit.

Jesus sees him, chats with him a bit and is like dude, man, you gotta trust me - if you quit your job, like this instant - and hang with me, your life is going to be more impactful and more purposeful than you could ever imagine... like radically different.

I'm kind of taking the liberty to paraphrase here.... but the point is, God asked him to choose to live boldly for Him; to take the comfort of everything he knew and just chuck it out the window to intentionally live uncomfortably, without much of a plan, without any visible or tangible safety net. The plan was for Peter to quit the business he built and walk around following some guy around (Jesus).

Somewhere along the way we have become crazy obsessed about safety. "Safety first!" I'd yell out to my kids in the car, my reminder for them to buckle up.

We check expiration dates and ingredient lists. We read hours of consumer reports before buying the safest stroller and argue intensely over the pros and cons of educational video games. We accept the job when we can be assured the pay and benefits are an improvement. We gather our nest egg and eat at the restaurant where we know the food is good. We go on a trip after all our vaccinations and after we check all the hotel reviews. And we always pay for the traveler's insurance.

We don't make a move until we know it's going to be safe. Until we can prove that our decision makes sense.

We need to be more Peter-ish.

Can you imagine that exchange in today's world? Can you imagine Jesus walking up to a modern day Peter and saying, got this great idea - give up your business and let's go walking. Peter would have to see how much he could get back on his investment - what the boat is worth, the nets, how much he could sell them for. Then he'd calculate out his missed wages, could he afford to follow Jesus and for how long? If the thing with Jesus didn't work out would he be able to buy his boat back? Or another comparable one? What about his house? He would need time to go through his belongings, figure out what to keep in storage, what to sell, what to give away. He'd have to announce it to his friends and family - surely there would be a going away party filled with friends giving cards and hugs and words of encouragement.

Shoot, can you even picture Jesus waiting on all that nonsense? He'd be like look, if you don't want to follow me  just say so - clearly you're not ready.

Are you ready? Are you really ready?

I have a friend who answered God's call to adopt a child.... except she was 25.... and single.... and she had to navigate the Romanian government while not speaking a word of their language.

Nothing about that made sense.

Nothing about that was safe.

She was too young and it was too foolish to spend money like that and who would purposely want to be a single parent? Wouldn't it be better if she got a full time job and saved her money and found a nice man to marry and settle down and buy a house and then they could discuss adoption?

But God had a child in an orphanage whose life needed to be changed right then and there and He placed the call... will you follow me?

What would have happened to that beautiful child while the appropriate amount of money was being saved and the right man was being met and the right house was being found? What would have happened to her precious little body without proper medical attention? What would have happened to her heart without a mama's arms to wrap her up tight?

 

Sometimes our need to be safe has the harshest of consequences.

And another thing? We need to stop judging others when they actually do live boldly. See, there aren't a lot of Peter's anymore, so when we see one, we just don't know what to do with them.

You think Peter didn't walk away feeling good and hopeful but then, hours into the journey, when it got dark and quiet, all of a sudden reality hit him? There were probably times when he wondered if he had made the right choice. There were probably times when things got hard - real hard - and he thought what have I gotten myself into? I doubt he was 100% sure and 100% happy 100% of the time.

Answering God's call is never easy and rarely is it without experiencing the extremely hard and incredibly difficult. But that's kind of what makes it about God: this is hard - this is scary - but do you still trust me?

There are the beautiful few among us that boldly follow and keep following, no matter how hard and how scary it gets. We should be high fiving them in the street not shaking our heads behind their backs telling anyone who will listen how ridiculous we think they are.

My friend, the one who adopted as a young single mom? She went on to foster children as a young single mom with a newly adopted child. And she adopted another one. Because God asked her to.

I imagine there were days when she thought about what her friends were doing and compared it to her life. I imagine there were nights when she felt like she was too young to do what God had asked her to and she'd rather be enjoying dinner with her friends without having to spend hours arranging childcare and then feeling guilty that she wasn't home spending quality time with her kids. I imagine there were days when she looked over her messy house with the jelly smeared faces and wondered who would ever want to marry into this. I imagine there were a lot of people who figured she had created this hard life for herself so she kind of deserved to sleep in the proverbial bed she had made. Even if that meant feeling isolated and alone.

But she did marry. She married an amazing man who saw her goodness and her light and saw her courageous spirit and the boldness in her trust in God. Someone who wanted in. And they had two more children. And they continue to foster. And life is hard and sleep is fleeting and the issues that come with broken children and their broken childhoods sometimes seem insurmountable and threaten to consume them whole and sometimes it's the weakest of whispers, but still they say, we trust you God.

Meanwhile, the good, well meaning people of the village shake their heads while providing running commentary: they can't handle it, they took too much on, they should just focus on their own children, look how stressed they are, they never seem to get enough sleep, they're not doing this right, this can't be good for their marriage....

Judgment in the face of boldness. Cynicism in the face of radical obedience.

While God sits, smiling proudly from His throne, "well done, good and faithful servant. Well done."

We need more Peter's. To obey. To say yes. To follow without securing that earthly safety net first. To live boldly and radically for Christ - because that's where the radical difference in our world is going to come from.

We need to silence our judgments when the Peter's are revealed. We need to stop shaking our heads and trying to make the bold conform to our safe, comfortable, make sense lifestyles.

We need to use our voices and our actions to encourage the Peter's and support the Peter's and learn from the Peter's: how to be brave. How to take the hard step and how to keep taking the hard steps. How to live boldly for Christ even when it makes no sense to anyone else around us.

We need to cultivate and grow more Peter's - birthed from our own bold examples. Not try to snuff them out or make others think they'd be fools for considering to follow God's call.

Are you being Peter?

Are you living boldly and radically for Christ?

Or do you play it safe?

***

Walking along the beach of Lake Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers: Simon (later called Peter) and Andrew. They were fishing, throwing their nets into the lake. It was their regular work. Jesus said to them, “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men (and women) instead of perch and bass.” They didn’t ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed.
Matthew 4:18-20 [MSG]