Nonsense

I have been attempting to read our “Tuesday Together in the Word” reading plan with my boys. I was reading chapter 5 of Luke with them, when one of my sons stopped me after I read the section about Jesus calling Levi the tax collector as a disciple. He said in his most interested voice, “Hey, wait a second. Read that passage again.” I was proud that my son was so interested in the Bible that he had me to read the passage again. After he intently listened to me read the passage again, he asked the following very profound question: “Is Levi’s name spelled the same way that you spell the brand of jeans?” I thought we were about to have a deep spiritual discussion, but instead we discussed whether the blue jean company was named after Levi of the Bible. I quickly realized that I need to lower my expectations with family devotional time.

Nevertheless, I really wanted my sons to be interested in this particular chapter. I had read the chapter that morning, and it really grabbed my attention. The story of Levi (who does not have a blue jean company named after him) was not the section that really affected me that morning; rather, it was the story of Peter following Jesus.

Luke 5:1-11

Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret ;
and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake ; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets.
And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat.
When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch."
Simon answered and said, "Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets."
When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break ;
so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink.
But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, "Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man, O Lord !"
For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken ;
and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men."

In this section, Peter and his partners had been fishing all night and had caught nothing. Jesus instructs Peter to launch out into the deep and let down his nets during broad daylight. This made no sense to Peter. They had just fished all night and caught nothing. Following are a few reasons why Jesus’ instructions seemed so strange to Peter:

1. Normally, fish in that particular lake were caught with nets in shallow water at night because the fish would migrate to deep waters during the daylight hours and were at such low depths that net fishing was nearly impossible.
2. The nets that they used during that time were made of linen, which made them visible to the fish during the day. This type of fishing was only successful at night when the nets were not visible to the fish. During the day, the fish could see the nets and avoid being caught.

Jesus asked Peter to do something that logically made no sense to him. Has Jesus ever asked you to do something that made no sense? I think all of us during our Christian walk will be called to follow the Lord in an area that just does not “make good sense to us.” In these areas that defy our logic, the Lord will truly reveal his himself strong. He wants us to follow Him, not human logic.

However, by nature, I am a very analytical person. This is a good quality to have in the field of accounting, but these qualities sometimes get me in trouble in my Christian walk. I want everything to make sense and be logical. However, God calls us out of our comfort zone. In the past, He has called me to do things that simply did not make sense to me on several occasions. However, in each of those instances, He met our needs in amazing ways.

In 2004, our church planned a mission trip to Mexico to work with Robin and Charlie Janney. I had felt a draw to foreign missions for years. However, looking at our situation at the time it did not seem logical for me to go on the trip. At that time, Steve was in nursing school full-time and I was the only one who was working. Going on the trip would mean missing seven days of work, which would mean missing seven days of pay since I had no paid vacation time. Not only would I have to find the funds to pay for the trip, but my family would miss over a week’s pay. Even though our financial situation did not support this decision, I felt that God was calling me to go. I asked my boss if I could take off for seven days. He also thought that my choice to join the mission trip made no sense. I think his exact words were, “That is the dumbest thing that I have ever heard! You will miss a week and a half of pay to go off to Mexico and probably catch Malaria.”

During that same time, my oldest son came to me and asked if he could go on the mission trip with me. He had already made a list for how he would raise money for the trip. His list included selling all of his toys and his hamster. How could you turn down a boy willing to sell his hamster? We both signed up for the trip even though I had no idea how we would afford it.

Back to Luke 5-How would the account have changed if Peter had caught a boat load of fish the night before? What would Peter’s reaction have been if they had experienced a very successful night of fishing or if Peter could see a large number of fish swimming around the boat at the time of Jesus’ instructions? He would not have had the same reaction to the miracle that Jesus performed. Notice how Jesus used Peter’s failure the night before to reveal His strength. Just as Jesus used an empty boat to show His strength to Peter and the others, he used an empty bank account to show His strength in my life. He allowed us to raise the money in amazing ways to pay for both of our trips. The God’s provision for His people is amazing.

Also, in the months leading up to the mission trip, my boss lost his job and another girl in my office quit; therefore, I had to work a lot of overtime. When I finished working the required overtime, guess how many hours I had worked? I had worked the hourly equivalent of 7 days of pay. I was able to bank my overtime and use it when I was in Mexico!

God’s timing is so perfect. After I worked on this blog last night, Robin Janney called us from Mexico. We are a “second mom and dad” to a precious 15 year old girl who lives in Mexico. Her name is Cinthia, and we met her on our mission trips to Mexico. Robin told her about Steve’s dad passing away, and she asked Robin to call us last night to check on Steve because she has been so worried about him. This really touched us both. The phone call was such a reminder of the beautiful blessings that I would have missed if I would have looked to logic instead of the Lord and missed the opportunity to serve Him in Mexico.

Go to DeeDee's blog to read other "Tuesday Together in the Word" blogs. Please join us by either commenting or even starting your own blog. Here is this weeks reading plan:

January 14th: Luke 10
January 15th: Luke 11
January 16th: Luke 12
January 17th: Proverbs 2
January 18th: Luke 13
January 19th: Luke 14
January 20th: Psalms 8-9