I once stayed overnight on a rock ledge

One of my hobbies as a teenager was rock climbing. We even had rock climbing instruction in biology class. No kidding! Our biology teacher took the class rock climbing as part of our exploration of the world.

One time two of my friends and I did a two day climb. We were scaling a vertical cliff in Washington State. We had brought our sleeping bags and just before dark we found a ledge about 3 foot wide to sleep on. We used some pitons or hex-nuts and secured ourselves to the ledge and climbed into our sleeping bags. I actually don't remember sleeping much as I forgot my pillow.

Does this sound like a risk you would like to take? Maybe for a few crazy people the answer is sure but for the rest you may be asking; Why would anyone do that? Well some people thrive on risk. This is probably not healthy but without some risk you will not change.

Think about Peter as he foolishly asked Jesus if he could walk on the water to meet up with him. (1) Most of us, seeing Jesus on the water, would either hide in fear or cheer on our hero to do what we could never do. Not Peter, he took a risk. Everyone talks about how Peter sank and Jesus held him up. Yes, this is a great visual for us to learn to lean on Jesus during the storm of life but I like to remember that he was walking on the water before and after he began to sink. I tried to walk on water on one occasions. Even though there were no distracting storms I sank like a rock not even a slow decent but just like the song, splash, splash I'm taken a bath. You might prefer learning from others mistakes but if Peter did not take a risk he would not have felt the hand of Jesus grab him and pull him up. It does not say Peter climbed on the back of Jesus for the trip back to the boat. Hand in hand he strolled back to the boat maybe with a little swagger in his step. I doubt that the other disciples dared to say anything about the sinking part of the experience. I can hear them saying, "Hey, that Peter, he rocks!"

If you are living a Christian life without risk then I dare say you are living well below your potential. But what if I fail? Here at Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry we have an actual documented requirement that we must fail at least 3 times before we can graduate. Of course this is not moral failures but failure trying to step out but coming short. When we take risk we learn from failure but if we keep trying we will succeed. It took Thomas Edison approximately 10,000 experiments and 700 apparent failures before he succeeded at inventing the light bulb. That is 700 failures in the eyes of his peers before he changed the world (2). If we want to be a world changer then we must first embrace failure as a stepping stone to success and celebrate the failures and successes of those in a sphere of influence.

References:
(1) Matthew 14:28
(2) http://www.wilywalnut.com/Fail-Fast-Success-Failure-Wonderful-Edison.html