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Monday, September 19, 2005
I'm Going Fishing
It was a very interesting time in my life. The ministry I was serving was going great guns. Teens were coming out of the woodwork to our meetings. We were putting them in small groups. I was building relationships that were meaningful as well as influential...to me as well as the teens. It was everything you'd want a ministry to be.
But I wasn't at peace.
I couldn't explain it, either. I should've been happy. I should've been content. But deep down I simply wasn't. I would come home from meetings that went as planned and be disgruntled. After six years we were finally where I wanted the ministry to be. All the hard work was coming to fruition. But I wasn't content.
So I started praying about what God wanted.
And I waited.
And I waited.
And I waited some more.
No answers.
No nothing.
I wanted to hear from God...was talking to Him and all that...and I waited.
And I waited.
And I waited some more.
Which is why I can relate to Peter in John 21, verses 1--3 (from The Message):
"After this, Jesus appeared again to the disciples, this time at the Tiberias Sea (the Sea of Galilee). This is how He did it: Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed "the twin"), Nathanial from Cana in Galilee, the brothers Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. Simon Peter announced, "I'm going fishing." The rest repleid, "We're going with you."..."
The key words are "after this." See, that gives us a time frame to deal with. The "this" that John is talking about is after the death and resurrection of Christ, and two other times He had appeared to the disciples, showing Himself to be alive.
And then they had to wait for further instructions.
They'd wait.
And they'd wait.
And they'd wait some more.
Three years they'd followed Jesus. They saw it all. The miracles. They heard the teachings. They'd seen a man crucified and then come back to life. They'd heard all His predictions about what they'd do when He came into His kingdom. And now, somehow, someway, this was happening. They likely had more questions than answers.
And they waited.
And they waited.
And they waited some more.
And they decided to do what comes most naturally: They went back to their comfort zones. The things they did before all that took place. They went fishing.
The fell into their rut of routine. Since God is being silent, I'll just do what I always do.
They fished.
I, on the other hand, just worked harder. I dove into my work just like they did. I wasn't hearing from God at all, so I fell back into my old habits. I spent more time with kids. I formed more Bible studies. I tried to train more leaders. I tried to come up with more creative Bible lessons. It was simply my form of fishing.
And I wonder if that's what we all do when we get tired of waiting on God. We fall into ruts of behavior that keep us from focusing on the task at hand...
So, for today, I'll ask: What are the ruts we tend to fall into when we're waiting to hear from God? Are they good things or bad things? How do we usually wind up getting out of those ruts?
And tomorrow, we'll see how they did...
Brent 6:51 AM
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