Morning Thoughts

The other morning, I was writing in my Journible the first few verses of Luke 5. 

The simple act of writing words in longhand makes me slow down and notice them a bit more. Not only do I see and read them, I feel them.

Catching my eye and stopping my pen first were the words at the beginning of verse 1:

On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God... 

I noticed "pressing in" because one of the pastors I listen to, Matt Chandler, from The Village Church, once used a phrase that carries the same idea. He talked about "leaning hard into Jesus." (He was talking about hard times when he used it, but that word picture of leaning hard into Jesus spoke to me. If our soul can have a posture, that's the one I want.)

The crowd was pressing in. I tried to picture what that must have looked like - the crowd of bodies pushing, jostling, manuevering - doing whatever it took to get close to Jesus so they could hear life giving words. 

Don't we all want to hear lasting, life giving words?

I immediately asked myself if I was pressing in to hear the word of God.

Am I hungry for it?

Am I taking steps to make sure I'm getting fed the word of God?

There's not too many things that are lasting, but we are told that God's word is.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

                                                                                Isaiah 40:8

It's worth pressing in for.

I continued Journibling, and shortly wrote the words found in verse 3:

 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land.

When I wrote "put out" I couldn't help but wonder if Simon Peter was just a little "put out" that Jesus asked him to do that. 

The fishermen were coming off a long night of work with nothing to show for it - and they still had to clean up. Cleaning up was what Simon was doing when Jesus made this request. Simon does as Jesus asks, and apparently with no grumbling. I guess letting a guy sit in your boat is not that big a deal.

But then we are told (verse 4) that Jesus makes another request of Simon - and this one requires more than a seat from the tired, just finished working all night and just cleaned his nets, fisherman.

And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

Another invitation to "put out." 

Another opportunity for Simon to be "put out." 

And this request does elicit some vexation on Simon's part. Verse 5 records it.

 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”

Was Jesus serious? Simon had just cleaned the nets. Couldn't Jesus have said something about going back to put out before he'd spent all that time cleaning up?

But Simon did what I hope I would've done.

He stated the obvious and then stated what he was staking his life on.

Simon did an immediate compare and contrast and thankfully, chose well!  

Simon didn't sugar coat reality. They'd had a lousy night of fishing. But because he trusted Jesus and his word, he chose to not be put out (and eventually, lose out). The tired fisherman chose to take the clean nets back out and put out in the deep. He didn't know it when he cast those nets over the side of the boat, but he was in for the catch of his life with the man who would continue to change his life.

It was all so worth being put out for.

Pressing in to Jesus, putting out into the deep with Jesus - time with Jesus - is always worth it.