This pandemic has called into question many aspects of life we once felt confident we knew.
The status of our jobs, our relationships, sports, and even the proper way to enter a grocery store have all been cast into doubt. Yet, in the midst of this uncertainty we remain confident and steadied by our own limited knowledge. The skills and trade we have grown up in lend an air of certainty to our lives. Accordingly, we long to return to these familiar trades so we might again feel competent, worthy, and self-assured. What then would it take for you to walk away from what you knew in favor of something completely foreign never to return? Such is the story today.
Luke 5 is rich with content but begins by telling a story about Jesus speaking on the shore of Lake Gennesaret. As the crowd grew, Jesus asked one of the local fishermen, Simon, for the use of his boat as a pulpit. At the conclusion of his teaching, Jesus told Simon to push out into the deep water for a catch.
Pausing for a moment, imagine the perspective of Simon. He was a man who knew no trade but fishing, yet this carpenter turned rabbi who he had just met was instructing him on the process. Personally, I find being told how to do something I am supremely confident in to be frustrating and belittling. But here is where the path of Simon diverged from my own. Instead of politely thanking the man for his advice and going about things the way he already knew how, Simon chose to trust him.
“Simon said, “Master, we’ve been fishing hard all night and haven’t caught even a minnow. But if you say so, I’ll let out the nets.” It was no sooner said than done—a huge haul of fish, straining the nets past capacity. They waved to their partners in the other boat to come help them. They filled both boats, nearly swamping them with the catch.”
I read this imagining at least a tinge of sarcasm is Simon’s voice, “But if you say so….” Regardless, whether or not he actually believed he would catch fish, he acted in obedience. Maybe it was begrudgingly, but the results were the same. His act in faith, regardless of attitude, yielded a tremendous result. Noted. In fact, it yielded such a tremendous result that he was in awe and afraid.
“Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell to his knees before Jesus. “Master, leave. I’m a sinner and can’t handle this holiness. Leave me to myself.”
When we receive blessings that we don’t feel we are fit to receive we reject them and push back. Other times we are recognized or given rewards we feel we have earned and as such accept them willingly, feeling justified. The truth we fail to recognize is that none of it is deserved; all of it it is a tremendous blessing. Think on all the days and experiences you took for granted prior to this quarantine. Simply being able to go to your job, go out to dinner, or take a vacation has been taken.
Now, one would expect Simon Peter’s new found fortune to buoy his fishing career and aspirations. Instead, he again departs from expectations and seeing beyond the immediate opts to follow the source of the miracle vice the miracle itself. Invited by Jesus to something wholly new, Simon Peter does not even wait to cash in and walks away from everything he owns or has ever known grasping the vast depth of life beyond the here and now.
“They pulled their boats up on the beach, left them, nets and all, and followed him.”
Perhaps my gratitude should more closely mirror that of Simon Peter’s. This quarantine has illuminated a host of experiences I took for granted that I can and will be grateful for when they return. But more than that, in the midst of this tribulation I should take stock of the blessings I have both in spite of this time period (food, shelter, people that love me) and because of this time period (time with my family like I have never experienced before).
Perhaps in this uncertainty I should refocus from returning to what I knew to following the One who knows all.