Whatever ministry we may be involved in, whatever position we may hold, we are disciples of Jesus. And he knows that we are sinful and broken people. He knows that when he calls us. He has a far greater work for us to do. And he knows that he will need to do great work in us.
In Luke 5, we see Jesus gathering his disciples. He has already been doing impressive ministry before this point in the Gospel, but this is where we start to see the familiar faces being gathered into his inner circle. When we look at two brief incidents, we can find real encouragement for today. This is especially true if you don’t feel particularly impressive as a follower of Jesus. (And if you do feel impressive, it would probably be good to pray about that!)
In the first verses of the chapter, we see Jesus call Simon Peter to follow him. Jesus was teaching a crowd and ended up using Simon’s boat as a platform for his message. Then he asked Simon to head back out to sea and to cast his nets again. Simon and his friends had just worked all night and caught nothing. That was not normal (if it were, they would have found alternative employment). Now Jesus wanted the nets in the water in the middle of the day. Again, this was not a typical request, because everyone knew that fish go deeper when the sun is shining. However, they did as Jesus asked, and soon their nets were so full they began to break – unusual. Even their purpose-built fishing boats started to sink – very strange.
We all experience days interrupted by unusual or abnormal events. It is not normal to have a flat tire on your car, but it does happen. It is not normal to experience unusual weather, but we have a category for it. However, this was different for Simon Peter. This was not the typical kind of unusual event. This was the kind of combination of strange things that suddenly sent a chill down his spine and caused the hairs to stand up on his neck.
Something bigger was happening, and Simon Peter sensed it. This is what happens when you suddenly recognize that God is not just out there somewhere, aware of everything.
