Tonight, after Alpha, I walked back to the labyrinth to walk in the fading light. Pastor Debbie was there watering the plants, and she was kind enough to turn the water away from me as I walked the path. I was thinking a lot about the events of the day. My morning began with the exciting news that I had been officially admitted to Asbury Theological Seminary.
And I had spent most of the day thinking again about leaps of faith and how I keep taking these steps as if I were walking across a vast expanse of nothing but air and rocks below. There’s simply no way to walk across nothingness and yet with each step I take, God puts a solid foundation beneath my foot. I can’t see the path ahead, but I keep trusting that He will make the way for me.
As I left the labyrinth and made my way across the parking lot to my car, I noticed a man trying to leave the church. There had been another meeting in the church tonight, and when Marty left to help with the plants, he had locked the church doors behind him. Now this man could have unlocked the door from the inside, but I noticed him struggling a bit and I thought, since I have a key, I might open the door for him from the outside.
Just as I made that decision, though, he opened the door and I headed back to my car. Something told me that he wanted to talk, and even though I’m not much of a talker when it comes to strangers, I left my car door open and waited for him to pass me by.
He asked me what I had been at the church for and I told him about Alpha.
He knew the Alpha course well and I invited him to join us. And then, I think because he seemed so attentive, standing there in the twilight, I told him an abbreviated version of my story. I told how I first did the Alpha course when I had only been at the church a few months. I told him how important building trust is in Alpha and how the people who were there with me that first time mean so much to me.
I told him how before I came to Hope, I was never the one to try anything new, but now, because I trust everyone here, everything I do is new and it is amazing.
“So you got off the boat,” the man said.
It wasn’t until I pulled out of the parking lot a few minutes later that his words really began to sink in.
“So you got off the boat,” he had said.
I had written just that only a few weeks ago in my May 29th post on this blog. I had written about leaps of faith and specifically, I wrote about Peter, getting off the boat and walking on water when Jesus called for him.
There is something mystical and ethereal and altogether spiritual when complete strangers seem to know the inner workings of your heart. There are absolutely no coincidences and without a doubt I know that man was there with a message.
And that message I think is this: Life isn’t that complicated. We make it complicated but it’s not. That man knew me for all of five seconds and he was able to sum up my past year in six words.
So you got off the boat.
Life is not complicated. God’s demands are not complicated. They are not harsh. They are not cruel. They are beautiful in their simplicity.
Trust in the Lord.
Trust.
Faith.
Hope.
And when He calls you, get off the boat.
