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The holidays were always difficult times around my house growing up. I mean it seems as if some sadistic person shoved every single stressful event into a span of one and a half months. My family learned early that this time of year was more about stress management then anything that the days were really intended for. What with six kids from two different blended families we were never really sure what to expect. Let me give you some examples.

First there is thanksgiving where everyone is expected to actually be thankful. Now this sounds good, but what exactly are we supposed to be thankful for? Was it the food that never really was all that good? Are we supposed to be thankful for a dry turkey, lumpy gravy and lukewarm deviled eggs? Well no, it is really about the Pilgrims. So, now I am supposed to be thankful for a bunch of religious and political refugees. What are you telling me, that I should be thankful that they didn’t starve? Half of my family has Native American roots. So they are not real thankful about this. So in my family Thanksgiving always degenerated to commentary on religious and political views! Yummy, nothing settles a meal like a religious and political debate.

Then just a few weeks later you have Christmas. This is that special time of year where we max out our credit cards and our lives with stuff. After all it is all about stuff right? Good kids get lots of stuff, while bad kids don’t. Good adults have lots of activities while bad adults don’t. Then there is Christmas day where you have to make choices as to what family member you will be with and what member you will not be with. All this hot on the tails of Thanksgiving and dire pronouncements to never do that again!

Lastly there is New Years, or more accurately New Years Eve. Just one more big party that you have got to be at. What a great idea lets begin the New Year by eating and drinking too much so that we feel like crap to start off the New Year.

Does any of this sound familiar? Why is it that we make this time of year so stressful? I mean it is supposed to be about peace, love, joy, Thankfulness and new beginning. What does all this stuff that we add to it really mean?
Why is it that my family did a better job of fighting on Thanksgiving then being thankful for anything?
Why is it that Christmas had more to do with getting then giving?
Why is it that for years I would wake up with a hangover to begin the New Year?

Those are good questions, but does anybody have a good answer? How do we de-stress the holidays so that the value they were intended to show us comes through?

Let me take you to a story found in Matthew 14: 22-33
READ passage

Now you may be wondering at this point, "Alan, what the heck does this have to do with the Holidays."

"I believe that what we focus on shapes our lives." Would be my answer.

Look with me again at this passage. The disciples have just finished seeing Jesus feed 5,000 people with five rolls and two fish! Then Jesus tells them to meet him on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Meanwhile he goes off and prays.

Sometimes we get so busy focusing on what we are told to do we forget to do what we are supposed to do. Have you ever had that happen? It is not like you intended for your life to get out of control, it just did. Tying to be Superman, Superwoman, or the Super family, little things just slipped through the cracks. Things like- - - prayer, get lost in the daily grind. Until all at once all we see is the task at hand, and the next task waiting to be done. Then somehow we find ourselves not in who we are but in what tasks we are doing. Bob at work got the job, or the promotion that we wanted. Sally just seems to have her life completely together. Our focus shifts from who we are to what we do, it shifts to what we get is more important then what we give. Our lives are shaped by focusing on what we are told to do and forgetting to do what we are supposed to do.

That however is not all because the story goes on. In the middle of the sea, in the middle of doing what they were supposed to do chaos surrounds them. I am not just talking about the storm here though. They are literally clinging to life, a source of refuge, that the bible calls a boat. The most literal way that I could translate this text would be to say that the boat was being attacked by the waves from the sea and the winds of the storm and the disciples were fighting to save the boat. Chaos below in the water, Chaos above in the air and their only safety being attacked. How would you react? Considering the power of storms, and even more the power of storms on open waters is it any wonder that ancient people used water and storms to describe chaos? In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest written record of humanity that we have ever discovered Water is the chaos that is destroying order. Only the Gods can control water, humanity is powerless against it. Have you ever felt trapped in the mundane while chaos destroyed everything around you? Eating your life,- - -Your tasks where you find meaning? Our lives are shaped as we watch our tasks being destroyed by the chaos of life.

Then out of nowhere, there is Jesus. Just walking on the water. Here are the disciples fighting for their very lives and Jesus is out on a late night stroll! Somehow they see Jesus and begin to think that he is a ghost or an aberration of death. After all no human could be doing what Jesus was doing. Only the gods can control water. Then in typical Jesus fashion he says “don’t be afraid, I am hear.” Have you ever noticed that Jesus says some of the strangest things? I mean look at this situation. The storm is destroying the boat, the disciples are literally facing death. Now they see this vision “Walking” on the water and they really begin to freak out! And in all this chaos the best that Jesus can do is, “Don’t be afraid, I am here.” I don’t know about you but I don’t find that all that comforting! Great you’re here DO SOMETHING! We are dying here and you don’t even care! Have you ever thought that? When everything around you is doing down the tubs and you are fighting for your very lives? Oh you don’t have to be in the middle of a sea to feel this way. It could be that your job is being outsourced and shortly you will be unemployed. It could be that your health has left you or that your children are all heading down a path to destruction. Your security is being ripped out from underneath you and in that moment of fear and panic you cry out, Great You’re Here, DO SOME THING! In that moment our livers are shaped by fear and panic.

Then Peter does something amazing. Clutching the side of that storm tossed boat squinting against the stinging spray of wind whipped water he yells out, "If that is really you let me come to you.""

"What are you waiting for, Come on." Is Jesus only reply. No warning, or secret hand gestures, Jesus doesn’t even say, But walk fast so you stay on top of the water. There is none of that. Just a simple come. Would you have gotten out of that boat? Would you have dared to walk on stormy seas in a murderous storm? Peter was desperate - - - and that desperation was driving him to reach out for any salvation. The boat would not survive, he and the others could not make it to the others side of the sea, and the task was lost. Our lives are shaped when desperation drives us to someone greater then ourselves.

Stepping out of the boat Peter begins to walk across that foundation of chaos. Did he take two steps, maybe a dozen? I can’t image that he could have taken all that many after all there is a storm raging. Jesus had to have only been a few feet away so that he could have seen him to begin with. However many steps he took something happened along the way. The desperation that drove him out of the boat began to laps. All the old fears and doubts rushed back into his life like water into a sinking boat, and Peter began to sink. Ever step out in faith only to begin to sink? Your desperation pushed you to something different and at first it seems like the right choice. But then the storm around you, the Chaos that surrounds you, seems to big, to powerful and you begin to sink again. You see our lives are shaped when we lose our focus on God.

I told you that I believe that what we focus on shapes our lives as I began this morning. And in showing this to be true I have told you a story that shows this being played out in every one of our lives.

I have said:
  • Our lives are shaped by focusing on what we are told to do and forgetting to do what we are supposed to do.
  • Our lives are shaped as we watch our tasks being destroyed by the chaos of life.
  • Our livers are shaped by fear and panic.
  • Our lives are shaped when desperation drives us to someone greater then ourselves.
  • Our lives are shaped when we lose our focus on God.
 Everyday, every Holliday, we ride a boat across a sea of chaos. I also believe something else about this story. I believe that Jesus was teaching the disciples that even the simplest task becomes imposable when God is not with us. Left to our own devises we will spiral out of control into a world of self-inflicted darkness, depression and lies. And I am not saying that these situations are not real. No not at all. The disciples were going to die if Jesus had not shown up. But until their desperation drove them to Jesus, drove them to the one that said, I Am out of the storm they were domed to failure. They were focused on every thing but the I Am. The task, the weather, the emotion, the outcome. Never did they stop to focus on God, on Jesus, God made flesh.

This is why my holiday seasons as a child were always miserable. Because I focused on everything else. Food, toys, self indulgence, expectations of family members and a day off opposed to the reason for the day off.

Last year there was uproar over saying happy holidays opposed to marry Christmas and calling Christmas trees holiday trees. The religious community rallied around this phrase to force a change in the marketing strategies. But did that really change the focus, or did it just give us a new task that moved us away from our purpose?

Our purpose has nothing to do with what we call our holidays or our celebration paraphernalia, because we are called to walk on water! We are called to be with the I AM, to be with Jesus, God made flesh and bring peace in the midst of chaos. Our focus is to be with God in the mundane or sacred. All that is left other then that will cause us to drowned in Chaos.

Eta Mesa Ent
You have been Sent.
To walk on Water with your God