Cut the apron strings.
Toss the training wheels.
Ditch the boat.

What are our deepest passions?  What are our most important pursuits?  It's following Jesus – with all our heart, soul, mind, body, and strength, which we do with our prayers, our checkbooks, our patience, and every time we do something for someone else.  Yes, we’ve given up everything to follow Jesus.

Yet there He is – calling you and me to get out of the boat - to come closer.  Can the chaos of the raging sea be conquered?  Can the mirage of self-destiny be put into perspective? Can we consider the notion that Jesus often calls us to difficult places without easy answers?  Can we take that step toward Him that we really want to take?

Of course we can!
We were created to grow, to change, to risk, and to flourish!  We can move beyond the safe confines.  We’ve done it before, we can do it again.  That’s what we were called into being to do!

And the best thing about it is that when we take that step, moving out of our safe-zones, tracking toward that place where we’re being called, before we even begin to slip - there is a hand to catch us.  There is Someone there to break the fall.  No matter where we go, or what we do, we are being held.

So what does ‘getting out of the boat’ look like to us?  Where are we being challenged to go to draw closer to Christ?  To that place of deeper generosity with our time, our money, or a emboldened quest to pursue our dreams?

Is it time to ditch the boat?


Reading:
God is Back  Micklethwaite and Wooldridge
The Open Secret – Lesslie Newbegin
The Continuing Conversion of the Church – Darrell Guder