Luke 5: 1-11
Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret,
and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2he
saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of
them and were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the
one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore.
Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4When he had
finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down
your nets for a catch.” 5Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all
night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the
nets.” 6When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their
nets were beginning to break. 7So they signaled their partners in
the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so
that they began to sink. 8But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down
at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” 9For
he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had
taken; 10and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were
partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on
you will be catching people.” 11When they had brought their boats to
shore, they left everything and followed him.
I can feel the struggle in Peter (my favorite disciple).
He had been working hard all night long. The result was nothing. Nothing to show for their hard work. And this man, who probably didn’t look or
smell like a fisherman, so who was he to tell them to go out in deep water
AGAIN and throw out their nets?
There are times in my life when I’m discouraged, frustrated,
and then I get that call—go out again.
Really? The results are often are
fabulous as this one. When God calls us
to go beyond where we are comfortable, when we tried that before and it didn’t
work, we are surprised. Wow, God really
was at work.
God is calling all of us out of our comfort zones. I don’t think we will always be exhausted
when called, but God will call us to go deep.
Whether it is doing something we never thought we would, forgiving when
we thought there was no way to forgive, putting something on hold while Jesus
works with us…. We are called to go deep.
Being a disciple isn’t a superficial activity, in many ways it means
going all in.
For what is God calling you to go all in?
Challenging God, you do challenge us beyond our understanding,
beyond our comfort, beyond our imagination.
Help us to trust and go deep. You
don’t call us anywhere you haven’t already been. Help us to love as you love, give as you
give, forgive as you forgive. And in
doing so, may your kingdom and our lives be richly blessed. Amen
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