Walking On Water

Surrounded by water, surrounded by sea, I drown now and wonder how this all came to be...

It was a normal day, another straight-forward normal day. I sat in my boat, fishing for a feed. To feed my brothers. I heard a distant yell, I heard my brother scream. Running like the wind, what on Earth has he seen? He said he is here. The man we all waited for. The boss, the big man upstairs, the one that will lift us. I knew what he meant, I knew it all along.

I met the man in the desert with my other brothers, my other companions. The bright sun rose. What was a normal day turned into something different, something special. My brother pointed forward, saying in a loud voice “that’s him!” I met him with a smile and shook his hand firmly. This 33 year old man told me I’d be his rock, the rock of his work. My 11 other companions including my brothers would follow me and the 33 year old bearded man. This man knew everything. He told us what’s what. The stuff he said, the things he taught were awe-inspiring. He changed water into wine, which I thought tasted much better. Our meetings were much better and not just because of the wine and miracles we witnessed. I could not imagine our progress; me and the other 11 men without our boss, our teacher.

He led us into the depth of life lessons and taught us how to carry on his work. It was an honour to work for him. To be his rock. Me? Of all people? He was our shepherd lifting us up so that we could do his work. One day he taught me a very hard lesson. To walk on water. He had previously walked on water but I did not know how I could possibly follow his steps. He told me I needed faith to do what I saw him do.

I thought to myself “you can do this, YOU CAN DO THIS! YOU CAN DO THIS!!!” I had faith. His words and works gave me all the faith I needed. I WAS GOING TO DO THIS. I was going to walk on water. My 11 friends cheered me on as I made this big step. They had faith. The boss had faith. I had faith. I took my first step on the water. I did it! It was like a miracle. I kept on walking...a moment of weakness... I stumbled. I drowned. Falling in the black. Falling in the water. Falling in the sea of my own problems. I walked on the water, taking a risk, and I fell. A risk my company could not take. Because I tried to walk on water, I fell into a sea of financial problems.

I was drowning, not in water itself, but my work. I had many things to do, a family to feed and on top of all that, emails to be sent. The 40 posted notes on my office wall tempted me to give up, to lose faith and to quit my job. The boss however told me I was his rock, he told me that when managing a business you must sometimes take risks and walk on water. I failed him as a worker and a performance specialist.

Sitting in my office, I look around and see the 11 other workers tirelessly serving our company, trying to fix up my mistake...all because I took a risk. My brother trying to comfort me quoted 'Batman Begins' in asking me “why do we fall?”

I didn’t say anything.

So that we can learn to pick ourselves back up again.

But now I had to pick myself up again as well as my company. How in the world can I do it? It’s impossible.

I heard footsteps walking down the stairs. It was the boss himself. The man upstairs. He walked with a smile on his face across from office to office. I tried to hide; I couldn’t face him since my mistake. I crouched under my table and waited until his voice seemed distant.

It was silent.

“Peter, get up.”

“I was just getting my pen.” I lied.

“You don’t need to hide, you're not getting 'the fire'.”

“I know boss but I failed you and this company. It makes me feel like I don’t deserve to work here.”

“No Peter, don’t talk like that. I know Peter that you must be going through a rough time. I am partially responsible for our company’s state. But don’t be afraid, have faith and we will get through this.”

Once again I believed his words and remembered why I had always admired him. He was a compassionate leader and one that took action. So I got back to work amid my ocean of doubts.

We all met in the conference room, the twelve of us and the boss. He showed us a line graph which shows our profits rising in three days.

“The time for change is now!” he said. “In three days we should have our company in the best shape it’s ever been... but we have to walk on water.”

He then went on and on about his new strategy and laid out every action for the next three days. Next to me, two workers were whispering “can you believe this crap?”

“This guy's crazy. I wouldn't be surprised if we are out of our jobs within a week.”

I needed to tell them “the boss will get us through this.”

One of them laughed and said “yeah right.”

I still believed in the boss’ new strategy, but one question remained... can he really bring back this company from death in three days?