Power for the Christian Life

“And Peter, going down from the vessel, walked on the waters, to go to Jesus. But seeing the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried, Lord, save me.” -John Wesley’s translation of Matt. 14:29-30

This past week I took a needed vacation in New England. Many of you know of my connections to that part of the country and to faithful Christian communities there. It was a wonderful trip. But I had an interesting time getting home to DC. 

I decided to drive up in order to have a bit more flexibility, but when I stopped for gas on my way home about two hours into the return trip, my car wouldn’t restart. A tow truck was called and in just a few minutes the car battery was jumped, and I was back on the road. The technician, though, told me explicitly not to turn the car off until I was home. 

Traffic was particularly bad along the East Coast that day, and in a strange twist my GPS took me right into New York City to avoid traffic on I-95. 

I have lived on the East Coast my entire adult life, but I have never driven in Manhattan. It’s definitely not on my bucket list. But here I was, driving down the western parkway in New York City with the river to my right and massive building after massive building immediately on my left. By the time, I reached 56^th street, I came to a stop light. And the car turned off. 

Panic is a good description of the next few seconds that followed. Of all the places to have car trouble! And I should mention that I had my cat with me. Visions of being broken down in the middle of Manhattan (with the cat) flooded my mind. 

I immediately put on my emergency blinkers, cars started going around me (one of them honked, of course), as I ended the phone call I was on, and put the car into park. Thankfully, the car started again. It wasn’t the battery this time. For some reason my car was set to “engine off” when it wasn’t moving. 

So, on we went, “engine off” disengaged, even if my hands were shaking a bit by this point. 

Long drives give me time to think. And as the trip continued into New Jersey, I was reminded of the lectionary reading from Sunday in which Peter walks on water so long as he keeps his focus on Christ. He doesn’t, as you know, and he immediately sunk into the water before Jesus lifted him back up again.   

So it is with us when we are no longer connected to the source of power, in this case the power of God’s grace. In a similar way to my car engine and its battery, our lives simply don’t work as they are meant to when we’re disconnected.

In the Wesleyan tradition (as in Anglicanism), grace is understood to be the power of the Holy Spirit. And we need that power. Grace empowers us, transforming us along the way as we walk with Christ and pattern our lives on His.

And that grace—that power—is always available. In fact, we can reach for it at any moment. This week, as you think about your life with Christ, think about the means of grace that He has provided to us, whether prayer, meditating on Scripture, partaking of Holy Communion, helping others, or so many more. How are you connected to the source of grace?

There’s really no reason to be disconnected from the power of God.

Ryan N. Danker is director of the John Wesley Institute, Washington, DC. This is adapted from a weekly JWI newsletter that can be subscribed to here.

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