How to walk on water

I’ve always been a bit intrigued with Peter, specifically his personality. He seems to have been, what my parents used to call, rambunctious, yet very early in the life of the church he became the leader. So the question is, “How did a fisherman with an excitable personality manage to provide such effective leadership for the church?”  Let’s watch him along the way.
       Immediately after the feeding of the 5,000, the disciples headed out across the lake and Jesus went up on the hillside by himself to pray (pp. 204-5). A sudden storm broke out on the lake and waves crashed over the deck of the boat where the disciples were hanging on for dear life. On one huge swell they looked up and, of all things, there was Jesus walking toward them on top of the water. “It’s a ghost!” they shrieked.
       “It’s okay, you don’t have to be afraid,” said Jesus. Suddenly it struck Peter that perhaps he could do that too. So he asked Jesus if he could come to him across the water and he got a Yes. What he later used to call “The Walk” started out fine, but when Peter took his eyes off Jesus and glanced at the huge waves, he began to sink!
       “Save me, Lord, save me!” he pled as he kept going. So Jesus stretched out his hand to the drowning enthusiast. As the other disciples probably said, “Ya, that’s Peter for sure!”
       In later years I bet they used to say to one another, ”Remember when those priests from the Sanhedrin told Peter he couldn’t preach any more and he said something like, “I get my orders from God, not from guys like you” (Acts 4:19). That took a lot of nerve because he had just gotten out of jail. There were so many times like that, yet on that night when they captured Jesus, Peter denied three times that he even knew our Lord (Acts 26). How could he have done that! But Peter turned out to be what Jesus had named him – “Cephas” (Peter), the Aramaic word for ‘rock.’” And tradition tells us that he insisted on being crucified upside down because he felt unworthy to die in the same way as his Lord.
       So, back to the original question: “How could a man like Peter, a man of extremes (I would say), play such a significant role in the founding of church?” One possibility is that since God could see the entire picture before it happened, he “took a chance.” Peter had no way of becoming someone different from the one he would become. That’s a bit too “Reformish” for me, so how about, “God has alternate profiles for the role of leadership” – the wise CEO model, the enthusiast, the connected, the lucky.” And he does. The church has its own Steve Jobs, its Mark Zuckerbergs and its Warren Buffetts. Different styles, but they all get the job done.
       What I believe about personality traits and leadership is that God in his own way puts everything in order. He prepares each “leader” (genetically and in other ways) “for such a time as this” (Esth. 4:14). But he also prepares those who will accept that specific kind of leadership. I believe God is in control and we are to use our ”spiritual gifts” for the job at hand and thank Him for the privilege of being part of it all. From time to time we might even see if we can walk on water.