The struggles we face daily can often seem overwhelming. Every one of us knows what it feels like to be thrown off-balance, to experience the sinking feeling Peter felt when he bravely stepped from the boat. We carry many doubts. We’re often forced to adapt to unexpected changes. Life can burden us with too much to carry. And among it all, we face word of the conflicts plaguing our world that makes us feel very small, even ineffectual. Peter stepped from the boat carrying the weight of so many burdens; I don’t think he sank from a lack of faith. I think he might’ve just had a lot to set down before he tried walking on water. But Jesus called out to him anyway. And us as well.
My son LJ loves to watch Paw Patrol, a children’s show and movie franchise complete with all kinds of merchandising. Thankfully, for the moment, he’s placated with just his themed backpack, but I imagine at some point I’m going to get a request for some kind of toy. He loves playing with vehicles, and he likes dogs. It’s like the show was made for him! And for so many children.
There are some good lessons that Paw Patrol teaches to kids, but the one that compels me is the slogan of the show: No job’s too big, no pup’s too small. Some very heroic puppies and their human leader Ryder help save the day in Adventure Bay and City. We don’t really know how this team came to become the guardians of this part of the world, but the world the Paw Patrol lives in is very safe. That’s not to say that it isn’t scary sometimes, but the pups are right there, ready to help.
The pilot at the end of the Paw Patrol movie trailer is Skye, the team’s air support. Sky is the runt of her litter, and despite being one of the most capable and beloved members of the team, like the Apostle Peter, she wrestles with deep feelings of insecurity and inadequacy. She’s practically a metaphor for the feelings of smallness all kids feel in a very big and scary world.
Peter often wrestled with his place on the team of Jesus’ disciples, though so much of his story demonstrates a deep faith in Jesus. He is the first to proclaim that Jesus is the foretold Messiah. Jesus comes to call him “the rock”, the foundation of the church we’ve come to call the Christian church. He walks on water for a moment, but eventually, his mere shadow heals people as he walks past them, as the book of Acts tells. But before all those amazing things can happen, Peter had to learn to face his insecurity and believe that God had made him capable.
Back to the movie, Skye and the other pups discover powerful crystals that come from a meteor. The crystals give the pups amazing abilities, and Skye comes to love the power she feels when wielding her crystal. For once in her life, she feels like she can measure up to any challenge. Skye faces the film’s antagonist when an attempt is made to steal the crystals, and she gets duped into helping the villain steal hers. She spends much of the movie after that blaming herself and in deep resentment when Ryder excludes her from duty to keep her safe from the now super-powered villain.
Ryder’s reaction to Skye’s loss of her crystal is about as human a response as you can get. When the problems in our lives seem too big to handle, our inclination is to seek safety, for ourselves, for our loved ones. We can even fool ourselves into believing that this deep need is always the right thing to do. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve yelled at my sons to “be careful”.
Kids have a natural desire to test boundaries; this is how they learn, and how they figure out their limitations. But that process is ongoing, which to a parent is frustrating. Parents look at safety like they would a photograph, unchanging, static, ever-present. Kids don’t think or develop that way; change is a constant companion, so too their definition and redefinition of their abilities. Parents feel a deep sense of longing looking at pictures of their kids when they were younger; kids are always asking, “what’s next?”
The call of Jesus to His apostles was much like this; Jesus constantly challenged them to try new things, continually asked them to try things that tested their limits, forced them to look at things that challenged their established ideas. We can only guess at the fear and overwhelm those poor disciples on the boat in those dark waters experienced when they saw their Master walking on the waves, much more so when that same Master beckoned one of them out with Him.
In her work, “Lift Off”, the Rev. Nicolette Peñaranda describes the setting for this story of walking on water as being very dark. She reminds us that “there are no streetlights in the ocean.” The wind and the waves were intimidating enough, but the darkness is what really triggers human fear. Darkness has a way of terrifying us, but it also causes us to seek connection. It’s for this reason that “Lift Off” is intentionally dark with bright highlights. The darkness brings out the brightness of the highlights. These seem to contrast, but the Rev. is trying to show us that these colors complement each other. In the darkness of the waters, in his vulnerability, Peter reaches out for Christ’s hand. But it was Christ who called him out there in the first place.
We were never meant to face our struggles alone. Nor were we meant to believe that we needed a hero to rescue us from danger. When you live as a person who sees themselves as small, this idea can be very comforting, but it’s also a lie. Jesus isn’t Superman, hovering over the earth, watching and waiting, ready to descend to save us. No, He kept right on going, ascending, out of the reach of physical hands. What came down was God’s own Spirit, a divine dove that rests on us as it did when Jesus was baptized. We claim it and rely on it when we are our best selves, even before we realize that God was there the whole time, pushing us to face our villains, even when those villains stare at us in the mirror. And when we fail, God is there, hand outstretched, to rescue us, and bid us try again.
Not only does Skye end up losing her crystal, but in a misguided attempt to recover it, she takes the other pups’ crystals to empower herself to go after the villain, who again dupes Skye and steals all the crystals. But after Ryder trusts in his de-powered pups and some nifty teamwork, the Paw Patrol gets their crystals back. In a horrifying act of defiance, the villain reveals her plan: to destroy the planet in a shower of meteors. Skye is the only pup with the power to stop this catastrophe, and her team entrusts her with their crystals to bolster her strength. She fights admirably, but then faces a challenge that seems too big for her to handle.
Yes, our world is plagued by many great challenges, a virtual ocean. And we are but small boats being tossed about upon the waters. But for the disciples of Christ, with the Holy Spirit as their ally, no job is too big, no pup’s too small. Amen.