Return To Comfortable
Look, I have to be honest – when it comes to being a follower of Jesus, I blow it. As a matter of fact, as I walk daily with Christ I often feel like I mess up and get it wrong more times than I get it right.
I love the account of honest transparency that John shares of the disciples during a difficult time in their lives. We find the account in chapter 21. The disciples are somewhat confused as to what the future holds. They had given up everything to follow this man named Jesus and now he was arrested, crucified and buried. Although Jesus had miraculously appeared to them, he then left again. He told them to have “peace” and they were “overjoyed” when they saw Him. But now, he was gone, leaving them with uncertainty as to what happens next.
We all know that process – that feeling in life as we walk daily with Christ. We want to follow his lead and yet there are those moments that we are confronted with choices of faith. The disciples were in that crisis of faith – do I persevere, which is challenging and stretches my faith and will likely hurt, or return to what is comfortable? Just like me (and perhaps you) they made the choice that I find myself making often and returning to the thing that they knew best, a regular, predictable pattern of life that is easier for me but most often does not challenge my spiritual growth. For the disciples, that was fishing. As they were frustrated and coming ashore they see a man over a fire, cooking breakfast. Reintroduce Jesus to their lives.
Not only did Jesus step back into their lives physically, but spiritually this presented the perfect picture to remind them of why they were called in the first place – not just them, but us. Jesus called the disciples and us to be "fishers of men." Wiersbe elaborated on that phrase this way; [it] was not invented by Jesus; it had been used for years by Greek and Roman teachers. To be a "fisher of men" in that day meant to seek to persuade men and "catch" them with the truth. A fisherman catches living fish, but when he gets them, they die. A Christian witness seeks to catch "dead fish" (dead in their sins), and when he or she "catches" them, they are made alive in Christ!
Sin and frustration in our lives always pulls us away from Christ and draws us back to what is comfortable and familiar even if it is hurtful and destructive. In those moments we are ineffective for the cause of Christ. Jesus came to give us victory over the power of sin and death so that we might live victoriously. I don't want to be comfortable or normal - what about you? What do you need to surrender to Him today so that you can step away from comfortable and live like He is alive?
