Gone Fishing

It’s amazing how a story I have read straight from the Bible a good 50 times all of a sudden generates a new perspective.  What other book can do that?!  Though I have this happen frequently, the story of most recent inspiration is from Luke 5:1-11.  I bet as I start sharing the story, many of you will go, “Oh yeah, I know that one.  Fishing all night.  No fish.  Then lots of ’em.  Fishers of men. Yep.  Got it.”  I’m not criticizing, because I have a tendency to do this often when re-reading anything.  It is in part because I have a pesky Know-It-All complex, so I like to convince myself that I have nothing new to learn.  And this conceit is probably why it took me 50 readings to get such a basic and amazing concept from the well-known, yet well-overlooked, story.

The account takes place at the beginning of Jesus’s ministry when He is in the process of gathering disciples.  A crowd had gathered to hear him speak just as some unsuccessful fishermen have come in from a night of fishing.  Jesus steps into a boat belonging to Simon so that He can be visible to the crowd.  After teaching the people, He asks Simon to push out to deep water and let down his nets.  Simon answers, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.  But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

Now, I have heard sermons prepared on the miraculous event that takes place- so many fish are caught they need extra boats.  And I have heard sermons on Simon’s response- he falls to his knees, recognizing that this is God who stands before him, and he is “a sinful man.”  I can even remember as early as my first Sunday School class teaching us to be “fisher’s of men,” as Jesus calls those men to be.  What struck me as “new” in the story, was how fishing all night with no results is much like ministry.

Sometimes there are no catches and we have given up hope and pulled our boats ashore.  Sometimes we can lift our spirits by considering tomorrow is a new day and a change is in the winds.  Sometimes we feel so discouraged, we wonder if God has use for us at all.  And it is often on those days that God tells us to get right back in the boat and try again.  We might be tempted to point out to God what He already knows.  We have been trying!  All night, all day, our whole life and nobody (or maybe it’s just that one somebody) is taking the bait.

But because You say so, Lord, I will go.

I have a friend whose father is facing death; a father who in all appearances had strayed from the faith, though he once had served in the church.  On Monday, this friend had shared with me the pain she felt of knowing what her father faced in death and not having the comfort of his salvation.  And just when it might seem time to row the boat ashore and consider it too late to hope that he might make peace with God, she and others continued to share the Gospel message with him.

It is Thursday.  What a difference God can make in three days… or 3 hours… or 3 minutes.  I received an email that this friend’s father has asked for forgiveness and is in the process of finding peace in Christ, even in death.  What an amazing blessing to see this prayer answered!  

Luke 5 is a story of hope- one that says even when it defies the odds and your own sensibilities, God is at work preparing a catch that will make our hearts burst with joy, unable to contain the bounty.  As I read it, it brought to mind many whom I have witnessed to with no result and I rowed away, feeling defeated and leaving them in the seas of doubt.  But God calls us to go back out and let down the net again.

When we are feeling discouraged, especially when the salvation of a loved one is on our mind, we are reminded that sometimes it only requires pushing out to sea one more time.  It might seem tiring, it might seem hopeless, it might even be frightening, but if God has called us to do it, He will be faithful to see us through it.