Because You Said So

I won’t drive with my husband in the car and haven’t done so the entire time we’ve been married. He’s a great man, but he backseat-drives from the passenger side. I’m a year older than my hubby, and since I learned to drive in Pennsylvania where the driving age is sixteen, and he lived in Massachusetts where the driving age is sixteen-and-a-half, I have a full year-and-a-half longer of driving experience. I did not take well to his corrections. (Admittedly, I still don’t when it comes driving. God is still doing a work in me.) So, I intentionally pulled over and moved into the passenger seat and wouldn’t budge.

Thankfully, Simon-Peter wasn’t as stubborn as I am.

Jesus was preaching on the shore one day, but the crowd grew too big, so he climbed into a boat owned by a man named Simon (later to be called Peter) and finished preaching from there. Afterward, Jesus tells Simon to let out his fishing nets. Simon was a fisherman, and he most likely grew up in a family of fishermen. He had already been working all night. They didn’t even reel in a couple of minnows, and here is this carpenter telling him where and when to fish. Now Simon is a better man than me because instead of arching a brow and staying, “That’s it. You drive from now on (or in his case, fish),” Peter politely says, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” (Luke 5:5)

Simon went ahead, and the nets filled with so many fish the ropes began to break. He called over some friends to help, and they jam-packed both boats almost to the point of sinking. What would have happened if Simon had let his stubborn pride get in the way? Would he have become one of Jesus’s disciples? Would the sons of Zebedee, who where Simon-Peter’s partners? What if he stuck to his guns about knowing what was best?

What are we missing out on by clinging to our know-it-all ways? How often do we take offense when God asks us to do something, and we don’t want to, or we think we know a better solution. The old way of doing church may have seemed to have been working just fine, but God is doing a new thing and reaching new people. Having kids attend school five days a week has been how we’ve always done it, but God is opening new possibilities. Sports were played every weekend, but now maybe we’re called to do something else as a family. It’s a lot easier to type this up than it is to actually let go of my stubborn pride and tell God, “because you say so, I will do it,” but I don’t watch to miss out on the big catch of fish and men.

Don't miss a post! Sign up for my weekly blog by clicking here: Lorri's Blog.