When’s the last time you attempted to accomplish what your mind told you was impossible? This practice should be part of the basic training program for the Christian. It doesn’t matter if the thing is huge or small – it just needs to be outside the range of what you think is realistic. Most of us have a tendency to profoundly underestimate what we are capable of. I was reading one of my favorite magazines, What is Enlightenment, and came across a story of a fellow who spends most of his life setting new records or breaking old ones in the Guinness Book of World Records. Ashrita Furman has broken seventy-one of them since 1979. Among his achievements: 131,000 jumps on a pogo stick with only five minutes of rest per hour; he rode 405 consecutive miles on a bike around Central Park, with only 10 days of training; 27,000 jumping jacks – when he started he could only do 50 at a time; he did somersaults for 12 ½ miles – they allowed him to stop only to throw up.

 

When he describes why he does it, he relates it his spiritual practice. He was a student of Sri Chinmoy, who himself played over 100 musical instruments, once painted 16,000 paintings in 24 hours, wrote 1300 books, and lifted 7000 pounds according to eyewitnesses. Sri Chinmoy teaches that we are unlimited beings, and mostly what limits us in our own tendency to underestimate ourselves. When Ashrita Furman performs his feats, he’s actively meditating. He talks about depending on God’s grace to give him the strength to accomplish his goals. Sam Wyatt, who teaches meditation here at Canadian Memorial and worships with us, was a disciple of the late Sri Chinmoy. Sam himself climbed a mountain this past summer, and is planning to scale Mount Everest next year.

 

Now, friends, I’m not advocating that we start walking over hot coals here on a Sunday morning, but it is interesting to think about the last time we challenged ourselves to step out, beyond our perceived limits. And let’s not limit this to physical tests. If somebody had told me three years ago that I was going to publish three books and start to receive invitations from prestigious institutions to come and speak and lead workshops, I would have laughed out loud. Truly. When I was in high school I dreamed of driving the Zamboni around the rink between periods of the hockey game for a living. I’m not sure how it is we get in touch with this untapped potential, but I have a couple of hunches I’d like to share this morning.

 

For one thing, we have God on our side – God as the evolutionary impulse to reach our fullest potential. Do not underestimate this power. The universe came into being in response to it! Life wants to evolve and grow. We can either cooperate with it, or get in the way. Much of life is about figuring out how to consciously cooperate with this universal power. It all starts with a simple “yes” to this inner mandate to grow and expand.  Our life is continually issuing invitations to take the next evolutionary step towards fullness and freedom of being on the personal and collective level. We’re “called” to step out of the boat like Peter. Jesus acted as a source of allurement. There he was walking on water, and something within Peter had the audacity to say to himself: “If he can do it, why not me?”

 

Let’s not concern ourselves, shall we, with whether this story is historically true. It’s true whether it happened or not because it’s about that moment in every person’s life when they are called to take the next frightening step in the direction of their evolving life story.

 

The Olympics are an extreme example of human beings who organize their lives around being able to reach the peak of their fullest potential at their Olympic event. Every one of them has to get up every morning and recommit to challenging themselves to step out beyond their limits and shave another 1/10^th of a second of their time. Kyle Shewfelt is a Canadian gymnast who broke both of his knees doing a tumbling routine last year. I heard him interviewed about that moment. He was forced to ask himself whether he would try and make a comeback. Some wondered if he would be able to walk properly again. Not only did he come back. He performed in the Olympics one year later.

 

It begins with a “yes” to that evolutionary impulse to explore unimagined potential. You don’t have to win a gold medal to be an Olympian hero. All you need to do is to look within and find the “yes” to the next emotional, psychological, and spiritual challenge that comes your way.

 

One Mind

 

But how do we find the courage? Well, I have a theory. My theory is that we share a unified consciousness with every human being who has ever lived – because consciousness is not merely the product of our brain matter at an individual level. Consciousness is cosmic – man! Swiss psychoanalyst, Carl Jung, discovered that every modern human being has access to all the ancient myths, symbols, and stories through our dreams – something he called the “collective unconscious” or a pool of consciousness that is universally available to any who care to tap into it. In the same way we all live and move and have our being in a collective consciousness. When Ervin Laszlo calls this field of consciousness the Akashic Field.

 

We share the same mind as the first humans who stepped down out of the trees and on to the African Savannah where it was much more dangerous, but also held much more promise for a new future. We share the mind that caused Christopher Columbus and the early European explorers to challenge the view that the world was flat by setting out to challenge the edges of the known world. Whatever helped Betty Freidan and Gloria Steinem to step out into the stormy waters of patriarchy we also have access to.

 

The mind that was in Rosa Parks when she refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery Alabama is also in us. The mind that is in us was also there when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I have a dream speech”, knowing that by stepping out he was risking his life. When we bring to mind the first fellow to bring the hammer down on the Berlin Wall, we download that act of courage for ourselves. We were there at the level of this collective consciousness when the student in Tiananmen Square challenged the tank. We were there when Nelson Mandela began his “long walk to freedom”. 

 

And of course, for those of us who call ourselves Christians, the mind of Christ is also within us. “Have this mind in you, that was also in Christ”, encourages Paul. This is the mind that was in Peter when he had the audacity to step out of the boat in the midst of a storm with Jesus’ full support. Do it, we can almost hear Jesus say. He still comes to us walking on water – not to show off and not to prove anything – but rather to show us something about our own potential.

 

Peter gets a bad rap for this story. The way it’s usually told, he failed. He didn’t fail, anymore than Kyle Shewfelt failed when he performed his tumbling routine this past week. His stepping out was a glorious triumph of courage and inspiration. And when Jesus said, “O ye of little faith”, it wasn’t an admonishment. It was Jesus way of saying: “Man, you just about nailed it! We’re going to work on your faith, Peter. We’re going to work on your fear. It’s within your grasp. The only true failure in life is the refusal to step out of the boat.

 

Yeah, we all get scared. That’s what caused Peter to densify and sink like a rock. He was doing it, and then he noticed that he was doing it and inside I’ll bet he said something like, “I’m Peter, not Jesus, I’m not supposed to be able to do this, and besides if I can do this, then my life is going to change and I’m not sure I’m up for that…” In my own life, I write a few books and suddenly people are looking to me as an authority. They want me to interview me and have me address them, and yes, it’s an immense privilege – don’t get me wrong. But the fear comes up as well that causes me to want to contract and have the life I had before I stepped out. I get afraid that they’ll find out how truly shallow I am. I have nothing to say! Well, that’s when we hear the voice of Jesus say – to quote a line from a well-known hymn – O ye of little faith. It’s not about you, silly. It’s about the mind that is in you – the same mind that was in me was in Peter. The moment we think it’s about us and our performance and asking ourselves questions like will they like me and how am I doing so far, we’re going down!

 

And when that happens we reach out our hand to Jesus and cry “Save me!” Then we get back in the boat and he dries us off and pats us on the back like an Olympic coach and says: “Next time”.

 

Imagine is what we called “church” was a community of people who existed to help each other reach their potential. Imagine if we were able to gather in groups and openly share the life conditions that were challenging us to grow and then ask for help to step into them. For some these life conditions will be personal. Others will be at the place of being called by the life conditions of the planet, or of people living in poverty. We’re all at different stages in this sacred journey of life. But the world awaits your contribution. Your soul awaits your yes. Christ calls us still today to step out of the boat and into the future that needs us in order to be born.