Push your boat out into the water, even if just a bit

​As the story goes in the book of Mark in the bible, there was a large crowd surrounding Jesus near a lake. The crowd was pressing in on him, wanting to hear him talk, and he needed room.

There were two boats nearby and Jesus jumped into one of them belonging to a guy named Peter. Jesus asked Peter to push the boat out a little bit - away from the crowd - and then Jesus began to speak.

When he was done speaking, Jesus told Peter to push the boat out a little further. Then he told him to throw his fishing nets into the water. When he did - even though Peter hadn't caught a thing all day - his net became full of fish.

Peter was so moved by this that he left everything behind and followed Jesus. And Peter would eventually become a foundation on which the church was built.

I hear the word overwhelmed a lot lately. I FEEL the word overwhelmed a lot lately.

I think we get overwhelmed sometimes because we can't imagine that the little steps we're capable of could be remotely large enough to address the challenges in our lives. In fact, we often ask God to deliver us to a giant solution while failing to notice he's already delivered us a first step.

I fear we've been so sold on the value of BIG in the world that we've lost sight of the power that can be found in the little. And when we focus on the impossibility of the BIG we can't possibly have or do right now, we neglect the little we can do.

And settle back into overwhelmed. Or defeated.

I was feeling overwhelmed earlier this week. Trying to balance way too much in my work and personal worlds. It was late afternoon and I decided - I'm just going to go play in the woods. So I went to a local park and walked three miles on a wooded trail.

When I was done, it didn't feel like the world was in perfect alignment, but it did feel like I'd pushed the boat out in the water a little bit.

When I write in the morning - it's my way of getting my day off to a good start. It guarantees nothing about the day ahead, but it's my way of pushing the boat of my day out in the water a little bit.

When I decided to cut back on sugar this year, I quit buying ice cream. It didn't eliminate all the temptation of sugar in my life, but it was a way of pushing the boat out in the water a little bit.

Maybe you go to social media and you find yourself feeling less than whole after a few minutes there. Deleting the app or deleting people on the app won't make you feel immediately whole, but it allows you to push the boat out in the water a little bit.

I encourage you, when you get to feeling overwhelmed - stop. Stop considering the magnitude of the solution to the entire challenge and take a look around for a step. Because there is always a step.

And when the step tries to tell you it will never be enough, don't listen to it. Listen to the God who rarely pulls off anything deep without a seemingly shallow start.

Seemingly, because to us a walk in the woods hardly seems like an answer. But I'm not sure God's much interested in us knowing answers. I think he's more interested in us continually taking steps.

He's interested in us pushing the boat out in the water.

Just a bit.