Leaving it All Behind

(Luke 5:1-11)

Today was just one of those days. I take a look in our boat... nothing... not a single catch for the whole night. I look at my brother Andrew, the look on his face, the sadness in his eyes. I knew what he was thinking. I was thinking the same thing. Another day without food. The fish that we catch serves multiple purposes. It serves as food for us and our families and it also acts as our wage. The more fish we catch, the more we can sell. Fish are in pretty high demand and people are willing to pay a lot for them. We have never had any problems selling out a big catch.

Lately though, we haven't been able to catch anything and it is beginning to take it's tole on us and our families. I knew that James and John were in the same situation as we were. It was a tough time alright.

I could see over the horizon that the sun was starting to rise. I look at my brother Andrew and say to him, "Lets call it a night." Looking down at his net he responded with a sad voice, "Ok." We pull in our boat to the shore. I look around and I see the other fishermen who were about to call it quits too. I bend down beside the boat to fold up my net when all of a sudden, I hear the sound of someone stepping into my boat. I look up and I could believe my eyes! The man who was sitting in my boat was was Jesus!! I look at him and he looks at me and says with a calm voice, "Lets put out a little from shore." Well, I've heard of so much about Jesus but never in my wildest dreams I thought I would meet him face to face. So I did as he asked. Andrew and I got in our boat and we put out a little from shore. After a few minutes, I could see a crowd gathering at the shoreline. Jesus then started teaching from where he was sitting. I've heard of his great teachings but I never expected to hear him in person. It was absolutely incredible! No wonder he's by himself right now because there is probably no one that is great enough to serve as his disciple.

After about an hour of speaking, he then looked at me and said, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." Well, I was shocked at this point. First this great man is sitting in MY boat and he starts teaching from my boat. Now he's asking me to put down my nets? Well, the only thing I could say was, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets." I let down my nets. I wait, knowing that I won't catch anything. After a few minutes though, I feel the boat tip to one side, the side towards where I let my net down. It shocked both Andrew and myself and we stumbled over to the side to pull up our nets. They were heavy, we begin pulling them up and to our surprise, fish!! They were full of them! I have never seen this much in my life! We empty out our nets and throw our nets down again. Again, the nets became heavy and in record time. Any nets that we threw down, came up full of fish. Actually, there were such a multitude of fish that all of our nets broke. We signaled all of the others over and when they dropped their nets, they came up full of fish. We got so caught up in the catch that we completely forgot about the a maximum weight our boats can carry. We were starting to sink!

As I was watching all of this, I look at Jesus, I thought to myself, "He did this?" I immediately dropped to my knees, I was frightened. The only thing I could mutter was, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" Andrew, James and John stopped and they were astonished at this catch. It was by far the biggest catch we have ever made. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder, I look up and it was Jesus. He says in a calm voice, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men."

This was incredible, Jesus just called Andrew, James, John, and myself to be HIS disciples!! I was so excited. But then... I looked at the catch that we just made... This is the biggest catch and I start to think about... how much money will this actually make me. Like... this boat is FULL!! I'll make a killing off of this.

It was then I realized that this is THE Jesus calling me. I am not going to pass this up. So as soon as we brought our boats to the shore, we dropped everthing and followed Jesus.

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Sometimes, before God calls us to do something, He will fill our boats and let us have a choice between lets say a wonderful job with lots of money (full boat) or say full-time ministry with Him (following Jesus). I'm not saying that this is what happens for everyone but for me, it did. I have the potential to be very successful in Engineering and possibly also have the opportunity to fight against the water crisis overseas. This life would have been high paying, good security, ideal conditions for me to raise and support a family, etc. However... this isn't what God wanted me to do. God was calling me to something else. Full-time ministry with IVCF. God has called me into student ministry with IVCF and I have decided that I am going to trust and obey this calling and committ my life Him. No looking back now.