This morning I read Luke 5:1-ll in my morning devotions. It is a familiar story of Jesus and the fishermen, led by Simon (later to be called Peter). With incredulity and some embarrassment, Simon follows Jesus’ outlandish command to fish during the day, after working all night and catching nothing. But Simon had enough respect for Jesus to declare, “But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” The result was a catch so heavy that it required other boats to help them. Simon’s eyes and heart were opened at the demonstration of Jesus power over even the depths of the sea. He fell to his knees in confession of being in the presence of God. Jesus’ response was, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.” And immediately Simon and his partners, James and John, left everything and followed him. Ken Gire underscores this seemingly impulsive and foolish act, “Peter’s career as a fisherman is over. He leaves behind a business with a steady income, a business with assets, a business with a future. Without once looking back. Without once taking inventory of his losses.”
It was the cost of following “the call.”
This passage deeply resonated with me because thirty-four years ago we had done exactly the same thing. We had served the Lord in a vocational Christian ministry since our marriage twenty-one years previously. But, in the spring of 1986 we dropped everything to follow Christ into cross-cultural ministry. We had taken a short-term mission trip and were confronted with the needs of countries outside our own. God used two questions, from two very different sources to challenge me. The first was from a young Egyptian Christian man who, following an evening of testimonies about the cost of discipleship in this Muslim country, stared at me and said, “Do you really care?” I was cut to the deepest part of my being. Following that, it was God’s question in Isaiah 6:8, “ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” It was made it clear I was called to surrender to this “new” thing God was doing in our lives.
We immediately—without adequate counsel or knowledge; with no financial support; and no cross-cultural training, resigned from our church where Glenn was pastoring, and set out to follow “the call.” It seems foolish in retrospect and we made many mistakes, but we have never regretted it. Later, I would become acquainted with the story of the British missionary, William Borden, who left his family business worth millions to follow “the call” and died in Egypt, never having reached his destination of China. In his journals he wrote about his experience with the declaration about, “No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets.”
I wonder what God is calling me to do today that I would require such abandonment? Do I “play it safe” too often? I do believe in being reasonable and well prepared—but what if God said, “Let down your nets” when it makes no sense to even be fishing—what would I do? Am I willing to follow God’s demands of Christian life (in spite of being out-of-sync with the American evangelical culture), as laid out in the Sermon on the Mount? I have become aware that I have grown “comfortable” in my service for God. Yet, the Scripture teaches that Kingdom life will be full of challenges, persecutions and, even sorrows.
I am unsure how to bring this to an end, as it is a lesson-in-process in my life. But, I want to share it with you that you might pray with me as I seek God’s “call'“ for my life—and perhaps you will also respond to God’s “call’ for your life. May God be glorified as we seek Him.