35,000 – I’m just going to let that number linger here for a while and we’ll come back to it at the end. 

Over the past few weeks, this question has been stirring my heart:

“If God is stirring you to do something that feels unnatural, could it be that God is preparing you for something supernatural?”

Let me be clear, by unnatural, I’m not referring to sin.  I’m simply referring to something that feels anti-us; it’s something that doesn’t line up with our typical personality or temperament. 

If God is asking us to do something out of our character, but within His, could it be that God is wanting to do something in us and or through us that’s impossible without Him?  After all, it doesn't take much faith for you to do the things that are logically consistent with your personality.  It also doesn’t take much faith to do what makes sense to everyone else. 

Take for consideration the story of Peter walking on water with Jesus in Matthew 14:22-33.  While you don’t need to be a fisherman to know that we humans don’t walk on water, it’s striking to me that it’s Peter, the fisherman, the man who has made his living both on and off of the water, who is willing to step out of the boat. 

Peter is fully aware that humans don’t walk on water.  Walking on water is especially anti-us – it’s not just opposed to our personalities, but opposed to our anatomies.  We just don’t come biologically hardwired for water-walking.  However, while it is generally reasonable to conclude that walking on water is impossible, in this specific instance, there is an additional element to factor in: Jesus.

If Jesus really is out there walking on the water and He invites Peter to do the same, suddenly what’s reasonable, logical, and possible totally changes.  What’s impossible without Jesus is possible with Him; the earthly logic that made sense without Jesus suddenly seems foolish in His presence. 

If we never factor in Jesus, 

we will never,

ever leave the boat.

And if we never leave the boat, what – if anything – really separates us from anyone else?  If we’re never willing to step out of the boat, our lives won’t ever look much different than anyone else’s – Christian or not. 

When I think about the church and Christians and what it means to follow Jesus today, I think we far too often reduce life with God to living a sensible, reasonable, moral life.  Don’t get me wrong, morality is important, we just need to see that we can live morally upright lives in the boat all day long, but it’s the people with the faith to step out that make waves. 

If we’re banking on morality alone to woo people’s hearts to God, we’re no different than the Pharisees of Jesus’ day who were absolutely convinced that the key to renewal was stringent behavioral modification rooted in the teachings of scripture.  They weren’t totally wrong, but they weren’t right either. 

God wasn’t then and isn’t now looking to make us first and foremost a moral people – but a heaven-bent people who deny ourselves, take up our crosses and following Jesus (Matthew 16:24)

After all, Jesus’s first invitation to Peter isn’t, “Follow me and I’ll make you a more moral person.”  No, Jesus said, “Follow me and I’ll teach you how to fish for people.”  (Luke 5:10)  Before Jesus even promised to give Peter life, Jesus was teaching Peter how to give his life away for others. 

We should be passionate about the living upright, set-apart, God-honoring, holy lives.

We should be passionate about doing our very best, with the help of God’s grace, to embody the teachings of the Bible in both word and deed.  But if Jesus’ main goal really is just to make us nice, polite, moral people, why in the world did He invite Peter to get out of that boat?

Morality is good and absolutely should be a visible fruit of our life with God, but let’s be clear, morality alone is hardly a compelling witness to the gospel.  In fact, there are a variety of movements today built around the idea of secular morality attempting to be good without God! 

If we’re banking on morality alone to woo the hearts of the world to Christ, right or wrong, for better or for worse, there is a sizeable portion of the human population who’ve already concluded you can be good without God.  In the end, human hearts just aren’t all that moved by the lives of moral people who risk nothing, but by those daring souls who by faith in Jesus, take those reckless steps out of their boats onto the waves.

For what it’s worth, Peter didn’t walk on the waves for all that long.  We can hardly call his first go at water-walking an all-out success.

And yet here we are, some 2,000 years later, still inspired by his failure.  That right there is the beauty of a life of faith – even when we step out in faith and fail, God loves to use those stories for His glory, our good, and the good of others. 

Which brings us to the number 35,000.

Scientists estimate that the average adult makes about 35,000 choices each day.  That’s around 245,000 choices each week.  By month’s end, the average adult has made around 1,000,000 choices.  (No wonder we’re all so stressed!) 

Most of these choices feel small because they are small – they don’t carry with them any meaningful, readily observable significance. 

Drink a glass of water or a cup of juice? 

Sit over here or stand over there? 

Wear the blue shirt or the green shirt? 

However, in those thousands and thousands of choices, every once in a while, a choice comes around that feels different because it is different.  Every once in a while, we sense God stirring us to do something that doesn’t immediately make sense, that defies logic, or is inconsistent with our personality or the normal patterns of the way the world works.  In those moments, just like with Peter in the boat, if God calls us to do something unnatural, it might be because he’s wanting to do something supernatural in us, through us, and/or for us.

You’ve got 35,000 opportunities today – let some of those choices take you out of the boat.