Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you that you are always calling us beyond our own comfort and proficiency to a place of surrender and trust. You alone know who you want us to become, and you alone can lead us there. Help us to have the faith and the courage to follow you.
Scripture: Mark 1:16-20
Journal: How is Jesus calling you these days? How is he trying to take you from who you were to who you really are? What will you have to leave behind in order to follow him there? Are you willing?
Reflection: “As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will make you fishers of men.’ At once they left their nets and followed him.”
They were fishermen,
but they will be fishers of men.
God was calling them to leave behind what they were, in order to
become who they really are. It
was a pretty abrupt departure from the life they had known and grown comfortable
with. Now they were being asked to move
from proficiency to mystery. They would
have to leave behind a life and an identity they had grown accustomed to and
familiar with, in order to step out into the great unknown.
But isn’t that always what
life with Jesus is like? Leaving behind
the comfortable and familiar, in order to embrace a life of risky dependence. Trading autonomy for obedience and control
for surrender. Saying goodbye to comfort
and proficiency, since they cause us to stop short of the life God is beckoning
toward, and saying an unreserved yes to Jesus, regardless of what that
might mean.
We might be tempted to try
to convince ourselves that this calling was only for them, but it’s not. It is for us as well. These brave souls were willing to leave everything
behind—their boats, their nets, and even their own father—in order to follow the
call of Jesus. Are we?
Prayer
Closing Prayer: Help us, Lord Jesus, to never settle for a life of safety and comfort, when you are beckoning us to so much more. Open our ears to your call today and give us the strength and the courage to leave our nets behind and follow you.
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