Peter

Do you know your Bible stories?

I’ve been thinking about the story of Peter walking on the water. He was out in a boat when he saw Jesus walking on the water and asked him to be able to join him. Jesus said, “come on.”

So Peter steps out of the boat and as long as he’s focused on Jesus he is doing the miraculous, walking on water and making good progress. Then he starts noticing the sea spray, smelling the salty air, feeling the wind and looking at the waves. Peter starts to sink.

Now all Peter has to do is refocus and get back up. But instead he is focused on the circumstances, scared because he’s not paying attention, and he doesn’t see his salvation standing in front of him with his hand out. Peter is fighting the sea and swallowing a lot of water before Jesus finally takes his hand and puts him back in the boat.

There have been times in my life when I have been like Peter. Losing my focus, letting things distract me, focusing on the circumstances instead of the end result and swallowing a lot of sea water as I thrashed around struggling when I really didn’t need too.

If you follow on this path of not staying focused long enough, it becomes a habit, then grows into a behavior problem that will effectively keep you stuck making the same mistakes and winding up with the same results over and over.

I should know, there have been many times when I set off from point A to go to point B and wound up at point C wondering how I got there, but instead of going forward wound back up at point A repeating the same mistakes over and over.

So how do we change this cycle? For me, I found a coach, an accountability partner to help me refocus when I started getting off track, to help identify choices, options, along the way as well as point out steps or smart goals to help me reach my goal without getting sidetracked.

I am still looking for a good group like this, but may wind up creating one if I can’t find one. I would like a group to be able to share progress, brainstorm, idea’s and goals.

The point is, if you’ve spent any time at all in your life being like Peter, then find what works for you so that going forward you are investing your time wisely, not stuck in and endless cycle repeating the same mistakes, getting distracted and losing focus so that you never reach the place you were meant to be.

Cherry Coley ©