No Ghost

The scariest part of a storm isn’t always the wind and waves, it’s what fear convinces us we’re seeing. When the disciples spot Jesus walking on the water in Matthew 14:22–33, they don’t call him their friend. They call him a ghost. 

In this episode, Melissa and Bishop Wright have a conversation about anxiety, interpretation, and what steady faith looks like when life feels like it never stops testing you. Using the story found in Matthew, they discuss why Jesus says “It is I” before he says “Do not be afraid.” That order matters. Identity comes first, then courage. They connect that to faith and leadership, self-management, and the way fear can become a template we lay over God, other people, and even our own future. Listen in for the full conversation.

Read For Faith, the companion devotional.

Transcript

It Is I Before Fear

Bishop Wright 0:00

But what's interesting to me is that how he responds. He doesn't say do not be afraid first. He says, It is I. Take heart, it is I. You know, I'm the constant. I'm with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. I'm your friend. The good days and the bad days. So that's supposed to be the reminder which is supposed to trigger fearlessness, right? Or the reminder that we're supposed to be less fearful.

No Ghosts Reading And Reframe

Melissa 0:58

Welcome to For People with Bishop Rob Wright. A weekly conversation inspired by For Faith, Bishop Wright's weekly devotional sent out every Friday. Bishop, you named your devotion this week based off of Matthew chapter 14, verses 22 to 33, no ghost.

Bishop Wright 1:07

No ghost. Yeah, let me read that for you. So, as you said, it's entitled No Ghosts. They had been battered by the wind and the waves all night. Now at daybreak, Jesus comes to them walking on the sea. In their terror, they label Jesus a ghost. Ghost stories are big business in Hollywood, as we know. Some pay money just to experience fear-inducing stories. But as intriguing as ghost stories can be, I prefer God stories. God stories don't stir fear, they remind us of how formidable God is, and how fear is not the constant state of the faithful. Take heart. It is I, Jesus says early in the morning. Do not be afraid, he says. They mislabeled Jesus because of their fears that morning. They could have said, here comes our friend, right when we need him the most.

Why Scripture Changes As We Change

Melissa 2:30

And yet every single time we read it, something new stands out at us, right? Sure.

Bishop Wright 2:35

Well, this is why we have to read, that's why we have to enter, not just read the Bible. I mean, sort of sound sort of dry, read the Bible. No, I mean, we're in relationship with these ancient texts. We're in relationship with these sacred texts. And so, yeah, the words on the page, the 66 books are what they are, but we change. We're growing. The world around us is spinning. Um, our viewpoint changes as we go along. Insights happen, growth, development happens. We find ourselves in certain seasons, seasons of abundance and gratitude, and seasons of uh perceived scarcity and fear and trembling and uncertainty. So, so this is a friend. These scriptures are a friend. That's how I invite people to think about these things. This is a friend that helps us to find meaning, helps us to see facets of a larger picture, uh, that provide us guidance, strength, resources, and uh, and give us a direction, and I would say, even encouragement and motivation. So, so I guess what caught my attention is uh because of their terror, Matthew remembers, they mislabel Jesus. And it is possible to mislabel Jesus and therefore sort of miss the better parts of Jesus. And so, you know, I think we teach leadership uh here uh in our diocese, in the diocese of Atlanta, and we think a lot about um managing ourselves. And uh because the management management of self uh is so critical because it skews how we see things. And so I think what we need to do, uh at least this text invites us to do, is to thinking about making sure that we label Jesus the friend, the constant friend that he always is, and not to sort of lay our templates of fear over him.

Fear Templates And Default Trust

Melissa 4:33

Uh Bishop, this is bringing up a lot of me just personally and where we're at as a society. I think there's a lot of conversation around internal versus external validation. And when we talk about God and we talk about the way Jesus showed up, Jesus did talk a lot about the divine within, that the heaven, uh the kingdom of heaven is within you and and the kingdom of heaven is near, the close at hand, and that there's a fine line between confidence and self-assuredness. And I I can't help but wonder if if they weren't able, they're constantly looking out and out and out. And yet I'm curious if there's an invitation for us to hold both and for, you know, being steadfast and and rooted in our faith within ourselves, within humanity, and within our relationship to the divine.

Bishop Wright 5:22

Well, always the dance is both in. I mean, we are made, right? If we are made in God's image, there's a both inward and an outward, right? So there's an internal, external. And, you know, in Matthew's retelling of this story, um, you know, there is implicit in the story is, you know, sort of compassion. They have been battered all night long. Some of us can't stand inconvenience for 30 minutes, right? I mean, they have been battered all night long by the wind and the waves. They wonder where their friend is. Jesus is doing the Jesus thing. He's there. He uh he's he's, you know, action, just the story just before this is he's fed 5,000 people, right? So Jesus does these amazing actions and then he goes to reflect. He goes up the mountain to pray, he goes off in the distance. So, yeah, so we can understand with them the temptation to feel the fear. I mean, I don't think we're supposed to ever be robots. I think we are human. We're made of flesh and blood. And the truth of the matter is, from time to time, uh, we do have uh a legitimate dance with fear. But the story reminds us that is not our constant state, right? And that as we as we are in relationship over time, what we hope we're building is this default trust, despite our temptations to fear. And so it's interesting that the way that Jesus re-engages in the story. So they're battered, wind and waves, all night long. Then he comes to them walking on the sea. Uh, that's okay. I mean, that's that's sort of CGI Hollywood kind of stuff. But what's interesting to me is that how he responds. He doesn't say do not be afraid first. He says, It is I. Take heart, it is I. You know, I'm the constant, I'm with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. I'm your friend on the good days and the bad days. So, so that's supposed to be the reminder, which is supposed to trigger fearlessness, right? Or the reminder that we're supposed to be less fearful.

Melissa 7:29

Yeah, so we're never alone, really, is what Jesus is saying.

Bishop Wright 7:32

Well, thick heart, it is I, you know, it is I. I am the same guy in just a few sentences before, who made a way out of no way, right? 5,000 people needed lunch. We we had only meagerness uh in our hands and in our imagination, and somehow God shows up and makes something out of that. I I mean, I can just imagine Jesus over his three-year public ministry just saying, you know, what do I have to do for y'all to not default to fear, but for y'all to default to faith? I mean, you know, again and again, if we were able to line up the ways in which, uh, mystical and mundane ways in which Jesus shows up to his little community, you know, one wonders, but what do I have to do to show you that I am for you, both in word and in deed? And so I like the story, these stories, because they do come alongside me. They don't condemn me, shame me for wherever I am in the journey. But there is an ask, you know, in the business world, we talk about the ask. There is an ask. And the ask is, won't you move closer to faithfulness when you are tempted to fearfulness? There is a clear ask. And the ask is not based on, you know, stiff upper lip. It's not based on, you know, um, saying that you're tough and you're impenetrable. The ask is uh it is me. I am the constant in the universe. My love for you is a settled matter.

Spiritual Goals And Benefit Of Doubt

Melissa 9:26

What are we to do and how are we to be because of this particular verse?

Bishop Wright 9:31

Yeah, well, you know, I think what I I mean, it's okay to have spiritual goals. We have goals for our diet, we have goals for our weight, you know, for our experience in weight training and or our cardio. We have, you know, we're we're sort of goal-oriented people. We have goals in relationship. My wife and I are planning out goals for travel and other things like that. So why not a spiritual goal? Uh why not, why not, based on, based on it is I, you know, take heart, why not sort of pledge, say to God, hey, you know, God, you brought me through the last battering of wind and waves, whatever that is for you, whatever that is for the for the listener. Certainly I have my own list of of what wind and waves can feel like, being battered can feel like, tossed to and fro, as the Bible says in another place. And and you brought me through somehow, right? And so what I want to give you, God, going forward, is that I want to give you the benefit of the doubt. Maybe we could make this uh the title of this little little uh meditation, The Benefit of the Doubt. I, you know, I want to give you the benefit of the doubt based on past actions, right? Trust is trustworthiness, right? Consistency over time, right? So I think why shouldn't that be a goal for us? God, as worship, as my worship of who you are and uh and and whose I am, the next storm I hit, God, right? I want to just give you the benefit of the doubt. I want to trust you just a little bit more. And here's why this is important. I've said this on the podcast before, because I have found, and maybe it's only my life, but I I somehow doubt it, that we are uh normal normative life is either I'm going in a storm, I'm in the middle of a storm, or I'm just coming out of a storm. Uh can you say amen to that?

Melissa 11:18

Amen.

Bishop Wright 11:19

Amen. Right. So so if my life is always uh, you know, in some storm uh of some shape, form, or fashion, right? It seems like I might want to figure out how to be, and I'll use this term, uh a bit better stormtrooper. And one of the ways I can be a better stormtrooper is that I can remember that I take heart based on who God is. And that's what gets me through the storms, the batterings, the disorientations, the dislocations, all those things that life throws at us. And so what I like about this is because it dances, they label him ghost. He labels himself, it is I. It is that one, the one who has been, the one who has told you that a way can be made out of what you perceive as no way. So there's this dance about how we label God, uh, you know, in the person of Jesus showing up in this storm, and the way that he labels himself, right? Implicit in it is I, I am faithful. Call me faithful.

Melissa 12:24

Yeah, go ahead. Bishop, you're like, it is there's no way, and I'm like, yeah, because I'm Yahweh.

Bishop Wright 12:32

There you go. There's a way because I'm Yahweh.

Melissa 12:37

It's not no way, it's Yahweh. Anyway, I'm sorry. That's silly.

Bishop Wright 12:41

But think about that. But but think about that. Look, look, let me talk to the people who've been in church all their lives. I mean, should we be at you know, faith 101 still? What's the benefit of the relationship over many years, hills and valleys? It is it is that these faith muscles get strengthened, particularly for storm and for rough sea, right? And so, so some people want to go to church and they think that uh belonging to a community is everything. And I think that is important. It is a beautiful front door of becoming a member of a church, right? Which is a group of people who aspire to deep faithfulness. But then there's this other part, right? I am becoming something. What I am becoming is someone who relies on God and who doesn't need a preacher to say that I know for myself, in my own storm that happened at my address, that there is this Jesus who comes to me across my storms and who says, take heart.

Grow Faith Muscles Before Storms

Melissa 13:50

You you touched upon something really interesting. You were talking about goals, spiritual goals. And having been a strategic visioner, you know, for much of my life and as a spiritual director now, I can't help but wonder if part of the growth factor for folks is the ability to set kind of uh set goals for themselves and be able to look back and evaluate and see how far they've actually come. That I don't know that many people spend time actually doing that. And I can't help but wonder if that might be a benefit.

Bishop Wright 14:22

Well, yeah, it certainly is an invitation, right? You know, my joke always is that uh if you can say year after year, uh as a member of uh, you know, as a as a follower of Jesus, uh if someone can say to you, Rob, you ain't changed a bit, perhaps we need to reevaluate that. Perhaps that's not a not a compliment, that the compliment that we think it might be. No, what we want to do is we want to believe and uh and we want to become. That's what we want to do. We want to become and not some religious caricature, who needs that? We did we have enough of that in the world. No, but but but someone who has settled down now into a life with God, uh in a dependable relationship, in a give and take uh with a God that loves us better than we can love ourselves, and a God who can provide for us better than we can provide for ourselves. I mean, the truth of the matter is that I think a lot of people sort of uh they just sort of rust out in church, right? They don't wear out, they just sort of rust out. They sort of sort of go and it becomes habitual. And, you know, I suppose there's something to that. What I'm talking about is what part of the faith journey are you on with God right now? Right? So I am 62, I'm getting older, I'm thinking about things I never thought about before. And I'm trying to think about those things in the light of what is my faith, right? So, so seasons of life. I was young, I'm uh I'm not young now. I was a young, married fella, I'm not now. I was a parent of small children, I'm a parent now of older children. I'm still on a, I'm still on a journey, I'm still on a trajectory, and I'm trying to figure out what faithfulness means now in this season of my life. But it's an it's an active thing. I come to the Bible verses differently, right? I come now, having some background with this God, having some sort of experience, spiritual photo album, if you will, uh, with this God. And now I'm trying to think about in the season that I find myself in now, what does faithfulness look like? You know, given the storms of life? What is it gonna look like? I think one of the things that we do, and I guess it's just human nature, but we ought to do something better, is we wait till the storm hits to start praying and start showing up and start reading the Bible and all that sort of stuff. Well, I suppose that's one approach. But but faith really is a funny thing because it's cumulative, right? We want to build, we want to strengthen, we want to develop uh on the way to so we have storm preparedness.

Melissa 16:53

Mm-hmm. All right. And so when you think you see a ghost, you're actually encountering a friend.

Bishop Wright 16:59

You might just be encountering a friend. Exactly. Don't mislabel him. That's right.

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Melissa 17:04

Bishop, thank you, and thank you, listeners, for tuning in to For People. You can follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Bishop Rob Wright or by visiting www.forpeople.digital. Please subscribe, leave a review, and we'll be back with you next week.