Expect the Unexpected
Expect the Unexpected
It’s a few hours before the New Year, and like everyone else around the world, I am wondering what 2021 will bring. Looking back at this unexpected year, I can chart the highs and lows, plotting them along the map of my heart. Like many, I never thought 2020 would be like this.
Last night, I reflected on the day Jesus called Simon to be his disciple (Luke 5: 1-11). Simon had just finished a night of fishing with his brother and as they are cleaning their nets, Jesus climbs into his boat and asks him if he could finish teaching there so the crowd could hear him better.
As Jesus had just healed Simon’s mother-in-law a few days before, I’m sure he felt indebted to Jesus and so said yes. When Jesus finished preaching, he then asks Simon to put out into deep water and lower his nets for a catch.
I can imagine Simon’s surprise and annoyance at the request. He had been fishing all night and had caught nothing, and now a rabbi, albeit a healer, who presumably knows nothing about fishing, is now telling him how to do his job.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t know that I would have said yes. After a full night’s work, all I would want is to get home, eat, and crawl into bed. But Simon, a better human being than me, obliges Jesus and does it.
“When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing” (vs. 6).
The chapter continues and we see Simon overwhelmed by the catch of fish, falling at the feet of Jesus, begging him to leave him since he is a sinful man. What I want to focus on is what Jesus tells him next.
“Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men” (vs. 10).
I can imagine Simon’s shock at those words. He probably imagined that he would be a fisherman all his life. His father was probably a fisherman, as was his grandfather and so on. But an encounter with Jesus changed everything.
I often describe myself as a flexible planner. I make lists and goals and do my best to execute them. Having lived in six countries over the course of my life, I feel like I adapt well to change.
However, the one thing 2020 taught me is that I’m not as flexible as I would like to think I am. When things don’t go the way I planned, I often rebel and pout and complain to God. After a few minutes or days of wallowing, I grudgingly ask Him for the grace to be open to His will in the situation. The grace always comes and with it the realization (often months later), that the outcome was much better than if I had followed my own way.
Imagine with me what Christianity would look like today if Simon had told Jesus no. If he had said, “Sorry Jesus, but you don’t know anything about fishing”, and ignored him.
Who would have been the one, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to preach the Good News about Jesus and convert 3,000 people in one day as we learn in Act 2:41? Or perform tremendous miracles like cure cripples or the sick just by his shadowing passing by them (see Acts 5:15)?
How much more will God do with our ‘yes’?
As 2021 approaches, my prayer for myself and for you, is to be open to the wild, crazy adventure God might have for you in the New Year. Instead of rigidly sticking to our plans and our visions for what our lives should be like, let us stay open to His plan. That plan, with our yes, may just change the world.