Welcome welcome welcome to my very first blog! I’ve been trying to make this first post for a while now. You don’t know how many times I’ve begun typing and then back spaced my little word document all the way back to the top again, but this one verse has been stuck in my brain through it all, so I might as well get it out and share with you.
Here it goes…
There’s a scripture in the gospels that you may have heard of before. It’s Luke 5, the passage about a crowd surrounding Jesus at the shores of the Sea of Galilee; Jesus looks over to see Simon cleaning his nets from fishing all day and asks if he could row him a little out into the water to make preaching to the mass of people before him easier. Simon takes Jesus out just enough from the water’s edge so that Jesus could take a seat and teach the people from afar.
Verse 4 says, “When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.’”
Alright, this is the part that gets me…. Verse 5 says, “Simon answered, ‘Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down my nets.’”
I imagine Simon is a mix of exhausted and frustrated out of his mind after a long day of casting his nets only to heave them out of the water and into his boat all to find absolutely nothing every.single.time, especially since this is his job- his bread and butter, his life-line. I can also imagine that he thought it was ridiculous that Jesus would look at him after an entire day’s worth of wasted time and energy and tell him to turn his boat around, go back into the water, and cast his already cleaned nets all over again. What difference could it possibly make to go back out into the water now that Jesus said so? How on earth would Jesus know what’s best when it comes to fishing?! Simon is the fisherman, not Jesus!
But Simon’s response hit me hard.
He simply says, “…but because you say so…”
I’m in awe of his simple obedience- totally floored by the immediate and complete trust he places in Jesus.
After I read that passage for the first time in a long while at campaigners (a younglife bible study) last year, I went through a phase where I wrote “but because You say so” on the palm of my hand every single day. Living life with those words on the palm of my hand, picking up and letting go of any little thing, grabbing the steering wheel, writing thoughts and jots, holding hands, eating, sleeping, singing, dancing, etc.- all with those five words scribbled in ink on my hand- was such a simple yet extreme encouragement for me. It took me to a place where in the little things, the in betweens, the heaviest of heavies, I tried (and also failed a million trillion times) to stay obedient to what God was saying to me. There is just this deep beauty in the obedience in that simple phrase Luke claims that a fisherman said to Jesus thousands of years ago. And even still- more now than ever, I’ve found myself in a place where I’ve made this verse my anthem/heart beat/mindset.
So what is this World Race Gap Year thing??????!?? It’s a nine month, five country mission trip instead of jumping straight into college out of highschool with the backbone of Matthew 10- a desire to “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.” Simply put, it is a twenty first century way to make scripture tangible, to live a life of open hands- open to hold on tight to those in need and freely give the little that I hold on to. I’ve been placed on route 5, meaning that I’m on a team of about 55 people who will be serving in the Dominican Republic, Botswana, Haiti, South Africa, and the Philippines for roughly two months each. I’ll be saying sayonara to the norms I’ve lived with for the past 17 going on 18 years, and I’ll be living out of a backpack for this next season of my life! We will be investing in communities through orphanages, churches, the streets, schools, and anywhere in between by teaching English, doing HIV education, working with victims of human trafficking, assisting disaster relief efforts, doing construction work, and more all in the name of genuine, God-given love.
I am all over the board with my emotions right now. I’m excited out of my mind and crazy nervous all at once- such a weird mix of feelings to be feeling!!! I am all of these things, “but because he says so” I’m staying obedient and expectant in the midst of the unknown ahead of me.
As my journey of building a team of partners to fund me, minister with me, and raise me up in ways that I can’t on my own is just beginning, I’ll be blogging up about once a month with all kinds of news!! Prayers/hugs/questions and conversations/donations are all more than welcome!
Thank you truly for your time in reading this. I know full and well that there are a thousand things per second for you to like and read and watch, so your time means more to me than you’d know! God bless always! Go out and make today the greatest!!!
