Peter couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He had been fishing all night and caught nothing. An entire night’s work was wasted. He and his fellow fishermen had pulled the boats to shore and were cleaning their nets so that they wouldn’t rot quickly.
He was almost done when the teacher asked him to take one of the boats a little from shore because the crowd was too big … and he had obliged.
And now? The master was asking him to take the boats back out and fish in deep water. He would have to pull the boat back to shore. He would have to get the nets wet, which would mean the whole process of cleaning would have to start again. It was also daytime … nobody caught fish in the daytime on the Sea of Galilee, because the fish went too deep. You fish at night because the fish come to the shallow, warmer waters.
He had done his work for the day … it had resulted in nothing … and now, instead of going home to rest for the next night’s work, he was being asked to fish.
You know what? Everything he thought was TRUE. He wasn’t wrong in any of it. He was an expert fisherman who knew when and where to fish. He was, indeed, tired. It would mean redoing all the work they had just finished. Everything about what he knew told him not to fish, and he was RIGHT.
“But because you say so, I will.”
Of course, we know the result. More fish than fishermen could possibly imagine. More fish than netmakers could possibly imagine. More fish than boat makers could possibly imagine. All because instead on focusing on what was “true,” they listened to the call of the one who not only knows when to fish, but knows the location of every fish that ever swam.
He doesn’t just know that there are fish, but he knows them as only one who created them could know. When he tells you to fish, you don’t tell him 100 reasons why you can’t ... EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE TRUE. You just fish.
I struggle with reason. I feel guilty when I can come up with reasons why I can’t or shouldn’t keep going. And you know what? They aren’t lies. They are very real, very true, very hurtful, very scary ... I can give you 100 reasons why I shouldn’t keep fishing. I only have one reason to keep going … because He asked me to. And that’s enough.
Just fish.
