When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land toward which they were going.

Yesterday was a super interesting day!  I have taken on a new philosophy as I live closer to Portland and I receive emails from concert venues.  I have newly discovered that each venue tends to have, every once in a while, ways to email back and possibly win tickets to something.  So I have been emailing back as much as possible.  One such experience is to go to kink.fm and enter certain contests to be the in the Live Studio Audience for people playing. So I entered! And lo and behold…for the first time…I won! 

 

Being as it fell on a Monday afternoon and it was a new adventure…I asked Colin to be my plus one.  If you will remember, last week he went along with the Pampered Chef party.  He still is talking about how he wanted certain things but that is beside the point.  I called him and asked if he would go and his response, “Well it fits into my new motto…Go for it!” 

 

I trekked to Newberg, Colin jumped in and away we go with a certain feeling that this could be a scam…or we wouldn’t find the right location…or…you name the scenario.

 

We got to Portland, found a cheap garage to park in and started walking towards where I thought we were supposed to be at a certain time.  As we walked by the door, a woman with a box of tickets looked up and said, “What’s your name?”  And again, lo and behold, she had two tickets for us to sit in the second row to see Madeline Peyroux.  Now, at this point, you may not know who this woman is. I have liked her for a long time.  Many compare her to a modern day Billie Holiday.  I will let you decide…take a moment…

 

When the time came, Colin and I went in and took our seats.  Literally 5 feet away from the artist.  In an intimate comfy venue.  We couldn’t believe how great this was!  She played about 4 songs…there was an interview…the band was awesome…and we walked away totally stunned at our experience.  Totally worth going for!  Colin and I decided to keep this way of thinking and try going for adventures.  We made a deal yesterday to continue to the going for it attitude.

 

When I returned last night, although grateful for the experience, I felt a little pressure to get other stuff done.  It’s kinda hard to go for it…leaves other things to do, can be intimidating…but overall I think we are called to do it.  Certainly Jesus went for it as he started his journey on water.  There is all sorts of debate about if he really did walk on water or not, what the terrain was like, what the disciples were doing, how stormy it actually was, etc but the point is that he went for it…he did! He stepped out in the midst of it and walked.  People freaked out, Jesus remained calm and a new experience was talked about for centuries to come. 

 

Today maybe try going for something!  Go to that new restaurant you have been checking out, call someone that seems intimidating, ask that person for coffee, ask for a leadership position in your community or church, go to a movie by yourself mid day, or go sit and watch people, take a risk in work for the sake of creativity…live now. 🙂

 

Court