Throw the Nets

The disciples went out - doing what they knew to do, namely fish.  Is it possible that in-between the time of seeing Jesus raised from the the dead before the Spirit came upon them, sent them spinning and confused so they gravitated to what they knew?  But what they knew came up empty...until a Stranger asks a question and gives a command.  

"Did you catch anything?  Throw the net off the right side and see what happens."

You can't tell me those fishermen didn't have a moment of skepticism.  They had fished all night, evidently when the fishing was supposed to "work".  They caught nothing and were probably ready to just call it quits.  And here is a guy standing on the shore telling them what to do?  The audacity!  But they do it anyway.  They may have rolled their eyes at one another when they threw those nets back in, but they listened to that Sand Walker.

Of course, a bounty of fish are caught, but an even bigger miracle happens next.  The men's eyes are opened.  They obeyed the request and now they can see the requester is Jesus.

Faith is like that sometimes.  There is this sense of a command to something - a calling to action - but we may sometimes hem and haw about whether it is from God.  We want to KNOW for certain it is from Him.  But this story reminds us that certainty is over-rated and sometimes action unlocks our understanding.  Doing what is asked of us (even if we may have our doubts) opens our eyes to see that it really is the Master who has called us.

Sometimes action comes before seeing.  So we act and crazily throw our nets into the waters we are told to, at a time inconvenient for us, and we see what happens.  The lovely thing is that at the end of the story, Jesus already has the fire going and the food we are so hungry for, and we get to hang out with Him.