Monday, June 25, 2012

Put Out Into the Deep


My parents lived through the Great Depression and it changed them forever. I’m sure that’s why their plans for me centered on a stable and lucrative career. They expected me to get a degree in accounting and then go on to law school. “You can write your own ticket,” I was told.

But Someone else was writing my ticket. I became a Christian, and, much to my mother’s dismay, I got a degree in religion, and went on to seminary. I became a church planter and a pastor, neither of which could be described as financially stable or lucrative.

When we follow Christ, the Lord leads us into adventures we could never have imagined before we met Him. Sometimes those adventures don’t make a great deal of sense to us, or to the people around us, at the time.

For example, remember the story in Luke 5 of the great catch of fish? Jesus told Peter “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch” (Luke 5:4).

Peter and his partners had been up all night fishing. Despite their skills as professional fishermen, they came back to shore empty-handed. They beached their boats and began the tedious task of washing, repairing, drying, and folding the huge dragnets that were the tools of their trade.

So when Jesus, a carpenter by trade, told them to “put out into the deep,” it really made no sense. But, out of respect for Christ, Peter said, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets” (v. 5).

Well, you know the rest. It was the largest catch of fish anyone had ever seen. It was a net-tearing, boat-sinking, mind-blowing, paradigm-shifting catch of fish. Turns out that Jesus, who made the water, the fish, and the fishermen, had a plan that included more than business as usual.

I love the Savior, and admire His sense of adventure. When He says, “put out into the deep,” He’s got something special planned.