Feeling like you're doing everything right and still going nowhere? You've got the skills, the experience, the morning routine that used to work - but lately it all feels like rowing through a storm at three in the morning.

In this refreshingly honest conversation, Matt Edmundson shares about hitting that wall - the kind where your expertise runs out and your usual strategies stop delivering. Through one of the most dramatic stories in the Gospels, we explore what happens when trying harder simply isn't the answer anymore, and why that might actually be the beginning of something better.

Matt doesn't sugarcoat his own experience: struggling to get out of bed, Bible reading that felt like reading Chinese, workouts at six out of ten intensity. But through Peter's impossible request to walk on water, we discover why exhausting our competence can open us to something beyond it.

[02:19] The Nine-Hour Storm

Professional fishermen - men who've worked the water since boyhood - find themselves completely stuck. They've been rowing for nine hours through a storm. The crossing should have taken four.

"These guys were professional fishermen...but right at this point, their expertise, their knowledge, their insider trading - all that sort of stuff is not making one little bit of difference."

What we explore:

• Why expertise reaching its limit isn't failure
• The project manager parallel - six months in, still slipping
• That voice that whispers 'You should be able to handle this'
• Matt's honest experience of rowing through his own storm in 2025

Key takeaway: Sometimes our competence has to run out before we're open to something beyond it.

[13:15] Peter's Ridiculous Request

At three in the morning, Jesus appears walking on water. The disciples think it's a ghost. And Peter, exhausted and bleeding, asks the most ridiculous question imaginable: Can I come out there with you?

"The boat was safety, absolutely. But the boat was also the limitation. The boat was keeping him alive, but the boat was also keeping him stuck."

What we discover:

• Peter wasn't asking for the storm to stop
• He was asking to be with Jesus in the miraculous
• Why his failure in faith put him further ahead than the others' success in self-reliance
• The moment heart recognises truth before the mind has evidence

Key takeaway: When you've exhausted your competence, you finally get to a place where you're open to something beyond it.

[22:29] Jesus Gets in the Boat

Jesus doesn't teleport them to the other side. He doesn't drag them with a rope. He climbs into the boat - the very boat that had become their prison.

"Sometimes God's grace when he gets in the mess with you doesn't mean you stop working. Peter had to pick up that oar again. But somehow it probably didn't feel like defeat anymore."

What this means:

• They still had to row to shore - but now Jesus was with them
• The difference between pointless exhaustion and purposeful struggle
• How presence lifts the shame enough to finally talk to others
• Grace adds his ability to yours - same work, but not alone

Key takeaway: Grace doesn't make you stop rowing. But it means you're rowing towards something, not in circles.

[28:16] Conversation Street Highlights"I saw myself in that boat"

Jan shared how vividly Matt's description landed - cold, wet, and miserable. But she admitted: "I don't think I would ever have been the person to say, 'Can I come out?' I'd have been watching. And that makes me feel sad." How many times have we watched others in awe, thinking: why didn't I do it?

This was their area of expertise

Dan highlighted something often overlooked: these weren't amateurs. When they told this story later, they could say: 'We are fishermen. We knew what we were doing. This wasn't us being incompetent - this was a storm beyond our capability.'

They still had to row

Jan, drawing from thirty years as a nurse, connected the timing - the body is at its lowest ebb around 3-4am. She remembered her own 'storm nights' in nursing: "I still had to work. My shift wasn't over for another four hours. But the presence of God is with us in the midst of those horrendous times."

Don't disqualify yourself

Matt added a challenge: "Peter wasn't ready. He was terrified and exhausted - and that's when he said, 'Let's have a go.' You don't have to wait for all your ducks in a row. If that water was calm, it would not have been any easier to walk on it."

For more info, please visit https://crowd.church/talks/when-trying-harder-isnt-working