From Water Walkers to Dancing on the Waves

Water Walkers awakened people to the possibility that life with Christ is bigger than safe, ordinary existence. Dancing on the Waves reveals why Peter could step out in the first place: not because he had discovered the right formula, but because he had encountered Someone more compelling than the safety of the boat.

What is Water Walkers About?

Someone asked me recently what Water Walkers was about.

It was a harder question to answer than I expected.

Not because I don’t know what I wrote.

But because I realized I no longer see Peter’s story the same way.

When I wrote Water Walkers, I was captivated by one simple truth:

If Jesus could walk on water, Peter (I) could too.

Peter was the only disciple willing to leave the safety of the boat. While everyone else watched, he stepped into the impossible. The invitation of Water Walkers was to confront mediocrity, leave the familiar behind, and step into the destiny God had prepared for you.

I still believe that.

I believe Jesus is still calling people out of comfortable boats.

I believe He is still inviting us into lives far bigger than fear would ever allow.

But looking back, I can also see something I couldn’t see then.

Asking the Wrong Question

I was still asking the wrong question.

Without realizing it, I was reading the Gospels looking for the principles behind the miracle.

I thought Jesus came to model what we were to do.

How did Peter do it?

What made the difference?

What was the key to staying above the waves?

I wasn’t looking for a formula to earn salvation.

I was looking for a formula to abide.

A formula for courage.

A formula for walking in my calling.

It was a much subtler version of the same tree.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil always asks,

“What do I need to know or do?”

Even when the desire is something beautiful.

It’s Not a Formula

But the Tree of Life asks a different question.

“Who is He?”

That question has changed everything.

The longer I have walked with Jesus, the less interested I have become in discovering His methods and the more captivated I have become by His nature.

I don’t think Jesus came to give us a better system.

I think He came to reveal the Father.

Every miracle, every conversation, every unexpected response stretches our understanding of who God is.

Think about the storms.

One moment Jesus is asleep on a pillow.

Another, He is walking on the water.

Another, He simply speaks and the wind obeys.

John even tells us that after He entered the boat, they immediately reached the other side.

Why so many different responses?

Because Jesus wasn’t teaching storm management.

He was revealing the Father.

Every attempt to turn His actions into a method falls apart in the next story.

He refuses to become a formula.

Instead, He invites us into relationship.

Beholding

That realization has changed the way I read Scripture.

I used to ask,

“What should I do?”

Now I find myself asking,

“What is Jesus revealing about the Father?”

Those are very different questions.

One searches for principles.

The other beholds a Person.

Paul writes,

“And we all, with unveiled faces, contemplating the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image…” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Transformation doesn’t come from mastering His methods.

It comes from beholding His glory.

The Greek word Paul uses paints the picture of gazing into a mirror. As we behold Christ, His image begins to be reflected in us.

We don’t become like Him by trying harder.

We become like Him by seeing Him more clearly.

The Greater Miracle

Perhaps that’s what was happening with Peter.

I used to think the miracle was that Peter walked on water.

Now I think the greater miracle was that, for a few breathtaking moments, nothing mattered to him except Jesus.

He wasn’t analyzing the mechanics of faith.

He wasn’t calculating his odds of success.

He wasn’t thinking about destiny.

He simply answered an invitation.

His eyes were so captivated by Jesus that stepping out of the boat became the most natural response in the world.

Faith like a child.

He didn’t step out because he had mastered faith.

He stepped out because he trusted the One who called him.

Water Walkers…The Beginning of a Journey

Looking back, I don’t see Water Walkers as wrong.

I see it as the beginning of a journey.

It awakened me to the invitation to leave the boat.

Dancing on the Waves, the book I am writing now,  is what I’ve discovered after years of walking with Him and at times, sinking.

The invitation was never ultimately about walking on water.

It was about knowing the One who walks on water.

Because when our eyes are fixed on Him, courage is no longer something we manufacture.

It becomes the natural fruit of beholding.

The Christian life isn’t lived by mastering the formulas of Jesus.

It is lived by beholding the face of the Father revealed in Jesus Christ.

The waves will still rise.

The wind will still howl.

The circumstances will never become predictable.

But I no longer need them to.

Because I’m not trying to figure out how to stay on the water anymore.

I’m learning to dance with the One who never sinks.

In everything you do -eat, play, and love- may it always be Seasoned with Joy!

Let’s Continue to Go Deeper…