If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat

This book, by one of my favorite authors, is based on Matthew 14:25-32 which records the incident of Peter walking on water. In his exposition of the Matthean passage over ten chapters, Ortberg challenges the readers to come out of their comfort zone (represented by the boat) to embrace, follow and live out the life that God has intended and in store for them to live - a life that is purposeful, meaning, and characterized by growth. It is a life of extreme discipleship in which the believer denies comfort as the ultimate value of life, leaves the comfort of routine existence and abandons himself to the high adventure of following God. From Matthew's account of Peter walking on water, Ortberg also very helpfully discusses various issues related to getting out of one's boat including discerning the call, crisis, opportunity, failure, fear, suffering, focusing on Jesus, and waiting on God. The alternative to getting out of the boat, to growth, is to wither and die and missing out on the life that God has meant and wanted us to live. Ortberg's treatment of failure is particularly helpful. He points out that failure is an indispensable, irreplaceable part of learning and growth. He also argues that failure does not shape us but it's how we respond to failure. This book is very readable, at times humorous, but always insightful. Highly recommended!

I knew I needed a little encouragement to step out of my comfort zone and into God's plans for me, and this book was just the little shove I needed. I was worried that a whole book about one little story in the bible would be too much, but each chapter dealt with a different aspect of God's calling. The book is very easy to read, with lots of personal stories (many of them making me lol!) and relevant bible passages. There were so many parts that I wanted to take special note of that I ended up with a quarter of the book hi-lighted!