I am such a mixture of boldness and doubt; courage and timidity.

Jesus is so patient, so gracious.

In Matthew 14 Jesus invites Peter to walk on the water. It’s a simple invitation: “Come!” Peter gets out of the boat. No hesitation. He set his sites on Jesus, out on the water, and takes the risky step forward. Such boldness. “But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and, beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’” (vs. 30) Oh, Peter, such a mixture of boldness and doubt.

Standing in front of the Annual Meeting on December 13th and introducing our God-sized initiative for 2016 was a bold move. The initiative has two major benchmarks:

200 people making 16 invitations to friends, neighbors, family to join them where they are enthusiastically involved in the Church’s strategy.
Raise our annual revenue by 16%

So, being the mixture of boldness and doubt that I am, almost immediately after that meeting in December, I began to ask: “Will our people invite? Will they step up and give?”

My courage was tested when the first monthly financial report came in a few days ago. Where was the boldness? Where was the confidence that led us to set the bar high for 2016? Staring at the email which contained the January financials, I was confronted with my own doubt. I was timid. Hoping for the best, yet pessimistic, I opened te email.

$51 more in revenue than we had budgeted.

Come on, really? Really.

And, Jesus reaches out His hand takes hold of mine and says to me, “You of little faith, why do you doubt?” (vs. 31) Exactly, Lord! Why do I? Please pray for me as I make this Psalm my affirmation for the day: When I am afraid, I will put my trust in YOU. Psalm 56:3

And, may our gracious, patient and all-powerful Lord continue to multiply His gifts in us and through us to the glory of His name, and the success of our shared mission to connect people to life in Jesus!

P.S. As of the writing of this article we have counted (that we are aware of ) 55 different people who have made a total of 160 invitations. Wow! Yay, God! Lord, I believe. Help me with my unbelief!