In January and March of this year, the Cleveland, Ohio, Women’s Club held a two-part series reviewing the book If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat by John Ortberg.

The first meeting was especially animated, with the addition of some awesome visual props created by Mark and Lisa Skapura to go along with one of the early chapters, which discusses the concept of “boat potatoes”—the nautical equivalent of couch potatoes. In contrast to the 11 other disciples, we were encouraged to step out of the boat like Peter did, which represents leaving our comfort zone and security apart from God, to begin our voyage of discipleship. After the discussion on the first half of the book, each woman chose a boat potato to take home as a reminder of the concept of stepping out in faith to do something outside of our comfort zone, helping us to grow and gain confidence in the faith that Jesus Christ is always there for us.

During the second meeting we talked about dealing with fears as it relates to stepping out of the boat. The wind and the rain distract us and cause us to be fearful. We discussed the trait of resiliency. God gives us strength when we keep our eyes on Him, despite the storms that surround us. God can help us move forward again, just as he did for Peter. We can do things with God’s help that we could never do on our own.

The book draws some deeply thought-provoking lessons that we can learn from Peter’s example of stepping out in faith and keeping his eyes on God. The review helped us all ponder on how this biblical example can be applied to our everyday lives.