But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Have you ever seen someone try to stop a motorcycle with their face? If not, let me save you the trouble, it does NOT end well. When I was about 20 years old, the girl I desperately wanted to win the approval of was REALLY into motorcycles, and that meant one thing: I had to learn to ride a motorcycle, obviously. So I called up a buddy who, as far as I was concerned in all my 20-year-old brilliance, was basically an expert on motorcycles, and off we went. He put me on a gigantic cruiser bike that weighed probably 5 times what I did at the time, and basically said, “It’s like a bicycle, except you use your right hand to go instead of pedals.” Let me tell you, it turns out it is NOT just like a bicycle. I made it a little ways through the parking lot we were practicing in with no issue, until suddenly I realized I was headed directly toward a curb. No problem, just turn the handlebars away from the curb, right? Wrong. You see, what I learned that day as I sailed like a graceful meat crayon through the sky, accompanied by a high-flying Suzuki sidekick, was that on a motorcycle, wherever you’re looking is where you’re going to go. I couldn’t take my eyes off the curb, and even though I tried to steer away, I ended up headed straight for it. The consequences were dire for me, and highly profitable for my dentist. (And no, the girl was not impressed. 20-year-old Casen took a major L that day.)

You may be asking, what does this have to do with Jesus? What does this have to do with me? Both valid questions, for the answer, we have to look at a story of Peter from the book of Matthew. The condensed version is this: the disciples were in a boat when they saw Jesus walking on water. Peter says to Jesus, “Lord, if it’s really you, call me out of the boat.” Jesus does, and Peter miraculously begins to walk on water, just like Jesus. As he focuses his eyes towards Jesus, the wind picks up and the waves begin to intensify, and this happens.”But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Do you see what happened there? When he SAW the wind. Now, if your eyes work like mine do, that tells us something. He saw the wind because he took his eyes off Jesus, and that’s when he began to sink. They say we behold what we become, and when Peter was focused on Jesus, he was walking on water, becoming like Jesus! Only when he took his eyes OFF did he begin to sink. Isn’t it the same way for us?

We’ve all grown up hearing what we aren’t supposed to do: don’t lie, don’t watch things you shouldn’t watch, don’t cheat, don’t sin. Over and over and over, and yet, we still make those mistakes. What I think happens is, we identify maybe one sin that REALLY gets us, one struggle that we feel like we can’t beat. Maybe we can’t stop lying, no matter how hard we try, or we can’t practice purity the way we want to. Maybe you want to honor your wife, but can’t seem to stop watching pornography instead. I think we get so focused on NOT doing those things that we inevitably are so focused on them that we still find ourselves on a collision course with them, just like I did with that curb. Maybe instead, we find the opposite, the good, and focus on THAT. Instead of trying NOT to lie, I fix my eyes on Jesus because He is the truth, and I try TO be like Him. Instead of trying NOT to think lustful thoughts, I fix my eyes on Jesus because He is pure, and I will try to be pure like Him. Find the GOOD and Godly counterpart of the bad you’re trying to run from, and run towards Him instead. You can’t outpace sin, but when you run into His arms, He can lift you out of it entirely. So my question to you this week is, what are you looking at? If you behold what you become, what are you becoming? And how can you fix your eyes on the one we all most desperately need to be more like? How can you run towards Him, rather than away from anything else?

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