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.
