How’s it working for ya?

Merry Monday by Parris Bailey

“After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise shewed he himself. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing.”
John 21:1-3
I can’t really blame Peter and the other disciples for going back to fishing. After all, it had only been three years and fishing was always something they could fall back on in case things didn’t go the way they thought they would. Jesus being crucified just might fall into the category of things not planned. This statement “I go a fishing” speaks volumes. He used a word in Greek pronounced hupago, which means a final departure into something else. In otherwords this wasn’t a weekend fishing trip. He was done. In his world, Peter couldn’t see God’s provision or God’s plan, in fact he had lost sight of God in his life altogether. All he knew was that he had mouths to feed and bills to pay. The three years were great but you know “ time to get back to reality”. What’s sad is that all of them were thinking the same thing.
But then there’s was Jesus. They didn’t recognize him from the shoreline. They heard a man shouting “children under instruction, you haven’t caught any fish, have you?” (Wuest Translation) Or “HOW IS WORKING FOR YOU”. (My translation) Once again Jesus shows up to deal with the renegade disciples. Peat and repeat, from no fish being caught to a boat sinking load of fish.
The story ends with Jesus serving up a nice warm meal at the beach teaching Peter on love and redirecting his fishing ministry back to men rather than fish, and letting him know that his phileo love wasn’t holding up to well and he needed more of the agape love of the Holy Spirit in his life.
How is it working for you these days? I find that sometimes when things are too hard we just do something really, really stupid. In fact the girls at Marysong talk about this all day long. What started out as smoking a little “joint” at some 7th grade party turns into a nightmare that they never got out of. If we think living the Christian life, tithing (yes I said the “T” word) reading the Bible (oh how boring?) and going to church (even worse with those hypocrites!) is hard, let me ask again- HOW’S THE ALTERNATIVE WORKING FOR YOU? No thanks, I too like Peter, learned the hard way and decided to hang up the fishing business. Peter’s life brought him right smack into joy unspeakable and full of glory.
It will be okay, I promise. Whatever your going through, Jesus will be on the boat, stilling the storm, or on the shoreline directing the school of fish to go your way, He is our provider and our standby.
Wuest goes on to say “The secret of Christian service that glorifies the Lord Jesus is in the love which the Holy Sprit produces in the heart of true Christians. The quality of that service is measured by the intensity of the love in the heart of that Christian. The intensity of that love is determined by the degree of yieldedness of that person to the Holy Spirit.”
SO HOW’S IT WORKING FOR YA?