What I learned - Standing With Our Leaders

The growing question of today is clear:

are you standing with the leaders of the Church in a darkening world so that you might spread the Light of Christ?

It can be hard to stand with our leaders.  Sometimes, they seem so far away, and they are so much older than many of us.  It is easy, in our questioning, to doubt their influence and knowledge.  It is easy to tell ourselves that they don't understand the way the world is today.  That we live in a different time and place.  It is easy to forget that they just might know the world all too well.
In my life, I have seen many things.  Some are amazing, and many are not quite that good.  I remember what it is like to be tempted and tossed about on the winds and waves of trial.  It happens nearly everyday for me.  I believe that our leaders know those trials also.  They are not perfect, but they are getting their direction from one who is. 

 

There is a destiny that makes us brothers:

[No one] goes his way alone:

All that we send into the lives of others

Comes back into our own.

Edwin Markham

 

We can send our support to our leaders, our sisters, our brothers and our friends. When we reach out to lift one another, we prove those powerful words: “[No one] goes his way alone.”

Most of all, we need our Savior, Jesus Christ. One of the accounts from scripture that has always spiritually moved me is when Jesus Christ walked out on the water to meet His disciples who were traveling in a ship on the Sea of Galilee. These were leaders newly called, many did not have the experience of being leaders.  They were common (or even uncommon) fisherman.  

 

The account is recorded in Matthew:

 

“But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with [the] waves: for the wind was contrary.

“And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.

“And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, … and they cried out for fear.

“But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.”

Peter heard that call of love and encouragement from the Lord.

“And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.

“And [Jesus] said, Come.”

Pretty bold. Peter was a fisherman, and he knew about the hazards of the sea. However, he was committed to following Jesus—night or day, on a ship or on dry land, in stormy or calm seas.

In my mind I can imagine Peter leaping over the side of the boat, not waiting for a second invitation, and began to walk on the water. Indeed, the scripture says, “He walked on the water, to go to Jesus.” As the wind increased in strength and force and as the waves swirled about his feet, Peter became “afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried [out], saying, Lord, save me.

“And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him.”

For me, this is a powerful lesson. The Lord was there for him, just as He is there for me. He reached out His hand and drew Peter to Him and to safety, Just as He has reached out His hand for me many times before.

In my life, I have needed the Savior and the touch of His hand so many times. I need Him every single day.  I have wanted to feel confident enough at times to leap over the side of my own struggling boat, figuratively speaking, into the unfamiliar places that I must go, only to realize that I could not and never will be able to do it alone.  And so, like Peter, Christ reaches out to take my hand and help me through the troubled waves of my trials.  And like Peter, I am not alone in my journey.  He does not leave me to sink and drown in my tribulations.  He is there for me and is willing to rescue one, even as imperfect as I am.