“The biblical image of the victorious life reads more like the victorious limp. Jesus was victorious not because he never flinched, talked back, and questioned, he remained faithful. What makes authentic disciples is not … spectacular success in ministry, but a capacity for faithfulness … They [keep] coming back to Jesus.” – Brennan Manning, Ragamuffin Gospel
There’s a passage in Luke 5, just before Jesus calls his first disciples, that the Lord has repeatedly engrained in my head and my heart throughout the past few months of the World Race. In this piece of scripture, Jesus is on the shore and there are a bunch of people pressing in on Him and waiting to hear a word from God. It goes on to say very briefly that Jesus does in fact say something to them, but the real emphasis of this passage is what He says and does next.
He gets into one of the boats on the shore and calls out to Simon Peter, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch”. Having already called it quits for the day, Simon Peter responds talks back with a bit of attitude and says that they’ve been working hard all night and have caught nothing. In other words, he doesn’t really feel like letting down his nets again because of the futility he sees in doing so.
However, there was something in him that ultimately caused him to obey Jesus. He had just enough faith, just enough trust, and just enough curiosity to let down his nets once more. So he does. And what do you know? He quickly gets what is probably the biggest and best catch of his entire fishing career!
When I read this I tend to say to myself, “You see Peter, Jesus knew what He was doing.”
And Jesus usually responds with, “You see Anna, I know what I’m doing.”
There have been many days on this Race when I’ve felt a lot like Peter in this scripture. I am 7 months in and approaching the 50 day countdown to the end. I get tired a lot. And if I’m being completely honest, there are times when I want to reel in my nets and call it a day. But then somehow, someway, Jesus beckons me back out into the deep and He tells me to let down my nets again. And then, not always all of a sudden, I am given sight and a new energy that comes only from His spirit.
Here in Nicaragua, my team and I have construction every day for our ministry partnership with a local Pastor and his church. For the past three weeks all we have done is moved bricks and shingles and dirt and rocks from one place to another to another… to another. But that’s actually not all we are doing. Eventually that dirt will turn into a level ground, those rocks a foundation, those bricks a wall, and those shingles a roof. When our hours of labor seem futile and we are sweaty and dirty and blistered, I am reminded that we have the privilege of literally building Kingdom. One day, the Pentecostal Church of Palacagünia will have a proper kitchen where they can feed hungry children in the community and meet for fellowship after service. And isn’t that what Jesus calls us to? To love our neighbors as ourselves, looking out for their needs and to do so in community, all the while glorifying the Father? That’s what I believe. And that’s the calling I have answered to.
So if there’s one lesson that I am taking home with me it’s this:
When we are in the business of building Kingdom, our labor is never in vain.
I first learned this lesson in the Philippines as I spent countless hours in the nursery holding babies, changing soiled clothes, and getting my hair pulled out. And I relearned this lesson again in Swaziland during our long mornings reading books to Sihle and describing what the day looked like outside.
I know that those many hours were not futile. Those kiddos and Sihle are just like the people on the shore in Luke 5. They are waiting for their sign, waiting for a word from God, waiting to see if He still cares. And rather than giving it to them straight, God wants to use us to bring them unto Him.
Though I never saw any of the kids get adopted while I was in the Philippines and though we didn’t see Sihle’s sight restored, I trust that my nets fell deep. I choose to believe that those children experienced the genuine love and care that comes only from the Father in those moments I spent with them and that even if Sihle never saw our faces, He saw The Lord in us. I choose to believe these things not because I’m an optimist or an idealist but because I serve a God who is at work in all things and who is good.
“What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in it’s time. Also, he has put eternity into a man’s heart, yet so that cannot find out what God has done from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:9-11
We don’t always have the privilege of seeing how the story ends in this life. We aren’t always going to get to see how our nets are at work under the water. But that’s not what all this is about. It’s not about us, it’s about the Kingdom and it’s about bringing heaven to earth. It all comes down to our faithfulness. Day in and day out. And maybe one day when we meet Jesus face to face, He’ll take us out to a lookout and show us the bricks that we laid in the foundation of His Kingdom.
But until that day comes, I vow my faithfulness. And I hope you will too. Because you have people waiting on the shore as well.
And just when you think you’re over it and ready to throw in the towel He will ask you again “Will you let down your nets? Will you wait and watch and see that I am good? Will you stay faithful?”.
And I dare you to give it a shot. I promise it won’t be in vain. I have learned this divine and holy lesson for myself. The Kingdom of God is at hand and we are invited to be a part of it.
And it doesn’t even end there. Here’s the real kicker. You know what the best part of this story from Luke 5 is? It’s the fact that after Peter obeys, he becomes a disciple of Jesus and thus begins the most epic adventure of his life. And it’s an adventure for the history books and one that has been talked about for thousands of years.
So as my team and I finish out the last leg of this thing called World Race Gap Year, let us choose perseverance. Tomorrow, let us put shovel to ground once more. And though we may not ever see the end result, we will make it our business to keep building Kingdom. May we go out into the deep, where it’s sometimes rough and scary and exhausting, and let down our nets again. May we strive each morning to live this life in pure, unadulterated faithfulness.
For it is in that faithfulness that will surely come the most epic adventure of our lives. And it’ll be one for the history books.
