Out Of The Boat...

Tonight I was afforded a great opportunity to "get out of the boat."

For those of you who may not be familiar with the story that I'm alluding to, let me sum up.

Jesus' disciples had left Jesus alone to pray after an incredible miracle involving the feeding of thousands of people with just a few loaves of bread and a couple fish.

The disciples were sailing across the Sea of Galilee when the weather started getting rough. As if that weren't bad enough, out on the water they saw something that shouldn't have been there - it looked like someone was walking across the water towards them.

The disciples were terrified, thinking that it was a ghost, but Jesus called out to them, telling them to not be afraid. It was him.

Jesus' followers really weren't convinced and Peter - one of those closest to Jesus - called out and said that if it were really Jesus to call him to come to Him out on the water. (Not really sure why this would have proved that He wasn't a ghost, but I wasn't there...)

Well, Jesus called him, and Peter stepped out of the boat and began walking to Jesus. Everything was going pretty well until he noticed the power of the wind and waves around him and stopped trusting Jesus and began to fear. Immediately he began to sink.

Jesus was right there to rescue him, but Peter was chided for his lack of faith. If you would like to read the whole story you can check it out at Bible Gateway.

Anyway, tonight I was given my chance to step outside of the safety and comfort of my own "boat" and reach out to some of my neighbors. I was able to spend an unprecedented amount of time chatting with my across the street neighbors. I got to meet Bob and Debbie (Again... we had met before, but it had been so long since we had spoken to each other that none of us could remember the others' name! I was "Gary" for most of the night!), Aunt Mary, Nikki, and Irene... I think. I'll have to check up on that one again.

Long story short, it was nice to find out some things about them and the stuff they have done and to get better acquainted. It dispelled some misinterpretations that I had made about their actions at times. And hopefully it opened the door for us to interact with each other again in the near future.