Luke 5 is one of my favorite stories. It tells the tale of
Peter and his calling. Peter had gone fishing and caught nothing. I’m sure
there was some discouragement setting in as he washed his nets and thought
through his next attack at sea. How long had it been since he’d brought in a
haul? Scripture doesn’t say. It only tells us that he’d caught nothing that
day.
Fishermen then, as they do now, had a system. They caught
fish in the evening hours and always in shallow waters. It’s what worked best
for them. They knew their vocation, how they fished, why they fished, where
they fished. And then here came Jesus. At first he doesn’t address them. No.
First he preaches the Word. First he brings Truth.
(Oh! How important it is for us to stay grounded in the
truth!)
Then he looks over and tells Peter, who is putting all his
equipment away for the day, to come out into the deep and let down his nets. I
can just see Peter’s hands still on the sparkling, clean net he’d just tucked
away as he looks up at the sun gleaming in the sky and replays Jesus’ request
in his mind. You want me to what? We
don’t actually see those words in our Bible, but I can almost hear Peter
whispering them to himself.
Jesus was asking Peter to approach his fishing in a new way.
A way that made no sense to what Peter knew. A way that made no sense to
fishermen as a whole. A way that required
pure and active faith in the One who called him.
Friends! You don’t own the corner on your writing. God does.
We need to be open to his calling on the words that flow from us—however he
choses to use that call. We need to stay so close to him, day-by-day, and ask
him where he wants us to throw out our nets. Yes, we may have days, weeks, months—or
even years—of writing that follows one pattern, but that doesn’t mean he won’t
shake things up and call us into the deep when he wants to do something new
through us to reach people who aren’t in our current waters.
And when he does we will have a choice. Do we say no because
the call doesn’t make sense? Or will we think back to his Truths that we’ve
heard and choose to step out in faith and cast our nets where he’s calling?
Peter stepped into that boat, rowed out in the middle of the sunshiny day, and
tossed his nets into deep waters. Then he pulled in such a haul he needed
another boat to contain it all.
May we be like Peter.
Susan L. Tuttle lives in Michigan where she’s happily married to her best friend and is a homeschooling mom of three. She’s firmly convinced that letters were meant for words, not math, and loves stringing them together into stories that inspire, encourage, and grow women into who God created them to be. Romance, laughter, and cookies are three of her favorite things, though not always in that order. You can connect with Susan at her blog, Steps, Facebook, or Twitter.
Susan contributes on the first Thursday of each month.
Susan L. Tuttle lives in Michigan where she’s happily married to her best friend and is a homeschooling mom of three. She’s firmly convinced that letters were meant for words, not math, and loves stringing them together into stories that inspire, encourage, and grow women into who God created them to be. Romance, laughter, and cookies are three of her favorite things, though not always in that order. You can connect with Susan at her blog, Steps, Facebook, or Twitter.
Susan contributes on the first Thursday of each month.
