6 minute read
God Seeks to Unsettle Us
An excerpt from Let Go: Seven Stumbling Blocks to Christian Discipleship by Casey Cole, OFM
Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them, walking on the sea. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. “It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear. At once [Jesus] spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid. Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the
Advertisement
water.” He said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. —Matthew 14:24-29.
Before I entered religious life, I was pretty happy and most certainly comfortable. I spent a lot of time with friends, had a girlfriend I loved, and lived without much responsibility. What could be better than college, right? While my specific situation had to end—none of us can stay twenty-two for the rest of our lives—I could have continued on that trajectory. My life did not need to change much. After college, I could have found a job near home, working to support myself but also marrying someone I loved, hanging out with friends, and living in a familiar situation. I could have stayed in the safety and comfort of the boat, easing down the stream of life, and no one would have been the wiser.
But Jesus didn’t want me to stay in the boat. He called me—like he called Peter—to let go of the comfort of the familiar, the stable, the “easy”; he showed me a different path and called me to walk out onto the water. What stood before me seemed scary at first, even impossible. I would have more readily stepped out onto a literal sea than taken a vow of chastity. Why, when I’ve found something so safe and comfortable, would I risk my happiness like that? Isn’t that what we’re all looking for in life? It seemed crazy to throw something like that away. But I needed to. As much as I liked what I had, and as much as I knew that I could have served God from where I was, I also knew that Jesus was leading me to something that would be better for the kingdom of God—and for me. As happy as I could have been as a husband and father, he knew, as I do now, that life as a vowed religious and priest would bring me even greater fulfillment. This would not have been possible had I stayed in the comfort of the boat.
Jesus is calling each and every one of us from the boats of our own comforts. Maybe, like me, Jesus is calling you from the comfort of a traditional family close to home to religious life. But maybe not. Maybe the comfort that you seek in the boat is actually your own independence and lack of commitment, and what Jesus is calling you to step out onto are the waters of a traditional family, committing yourself to others. While each of our vocations is uniquely different and what is asked of me is likely not what will be asked of you, one thing is true for us all: True disciples of Christ never get comfortable in their seats. Rather than staying where it is safe, clinging to what is familiar, they recognize that the mission of Christ does not have walls or limits, and being a disciple is not a nine-to-five job. Whether it be a desire for
pleasure, a response to fear, or simply the result of overwhelming apathy, any comfort that leaves us sitting in the boat when Jesus is standing out on the sea is a roadblock to discipleship. Jesus is calling us, and we must be willing to let go of what keeps us from him.
It’s no coincidence that the most meaningful encounters with God in the Bible happen when people are in the desert. Moses witnessed the burning bush and received his call; Elijah heard the “light, silent sound” of God speaking, offering him reassurance; even Jesus himself was led by the Spirit to be tempted in the desert. By definition, a desert is a place of complete desolation, absent of creature comforts and most likely unfamiliar to the average person. Few are at home in the desert, and that is precisely the point: in the desert, there are no pleasures, no means of safety, and nothing familiar from our everyday lives. We are exposed and vulnerable. Free of their worldly comforts, shaken up, and most certainly uncomfortable, there is nothing left to rely on but God.
This is exactly what God wants.
The most important people in my life have always been the ones who unsettled me. Not the ones who comforted me and told me I was special and everything would be okay. No. The ones who challenged my worldview and forced me to do things that I didn’t want to do; the ones who stretched me and even said that they were disappointed in me. For as long as I live, I’ll never forget an admonishment I got from a close friend who told me things about myself that I did not want to hear. Here I thought that I was doing pretty well for myself, saw myself as a pretty good guy. No one is perfect, but, you know… I had my life pretty well in order. In just a few words— said with love, but by no means comforting—he flipped the perception I had of myself completely upside down. He unsettled the neat little world I had created, the comfortable image I had of myself, and forced me out of my complacency. I had unwittingly sat down in the boat and gotten comfortable with my life. I needed to be unsettled.
While some of the bad things that happen in our lives result from evil in the world and some from our own poor decisions, we can often see the hand of God in some of the upheaval in our lives. We are called into the desert and stripped of our comforts, not for the sake of harm in itself, but because we have ignored the invitation to walk out onto the water for far too long. We’re anchored in our seats, God can wait no longer, and so, a storm comes to throw us out. If you won’t come out willingly, I’ll just have to capsize the boat! As odd as it might sound to some, God is not concerned primarily with our happiness. God cares nothing of our comfort. All that God thinks and does and cares about is directed to our salvation, breathing life and love into us so that we may choose to return to the source of Life and Love. Sometimes, like a close friend admonishing us to awake to our blindness, God unsettles us so we can attach ourselves to something that truly matters.
Let yourself be unsettled. Let God shake up your world. The longer we cling to the comfort of our seat in the boat—whether it be because of the pleasure, safety, or familiarity it offers us—the longer we will find ourselves away from the Lord. He is calling us out onto the water, and there is only one thing left to do: jump. There will be times when it is far from fun, positively dangerous, and even a bit lonely, but it is what we all must do. If we want to be disciples of Christ, we must get out of our seats and walk with him.
Let Go Seven Stumbling Blocks to Christian Discipleship Casey Cole, OFM