Cast Your Net

There was an ad campaign by a major insurance company that says, “Sometimes life comes at you fast.” One of the ads shows a lady, learning that she has won the lottery, running into the back of a truck filled with dirt. Another shows a man who gets in his car to start it, only to have it fall apart. It is true that sometimes life is more than we can deal with. There are those times we would like to step aside from the push of living and just be comfortable.
 
The disciples had been on an emotional roller coaster with the events of Good Friday and Easter, and I’m sure they were at the point of exhaustion when they returned to what they knew best-fishing. The Sea of Galilee represented a safe harbor for the disciples. For the ones who went fishing, it was what they knew. It was what they had done for years before Jesus came and called them to follow him. After all, it was by catching fish that they had made a living. And now that Jesus was gone, they returned to their safe harbor of fishing.
 
When God interrupts lives, as Jesus did the lives of the disciples early that morning by the Sea of Galilee, it has a way of bringing us face to face with what we should be about. Too many times we are like the man in a cartoon with hair frizzed, legs trembling, and shirttail out, saying, “Doctor, I would like to see things a little less clearly.” We like to be comfortable in our safe harbors. We like to retreat into the comfort of what we know and do so well, as opposed to being challenged to grow and to follow. We like to look back instead of looking forward. Peter might have protested, “Let somebody else feed your lambs. I will be satisfied with the sentiment of saying, ‘I love you.'” The gift of another day is the opportunity to put our deeds where our creeds are. The gift of another day is the opportunity to change.
 
Just as Jesus’ presence is persistent, so is the call. So then must our response to follow Jesus. Taking up the mission of Jesus is more than simply doing. We are called to bring his risen presence to others by tangible signs. We are to provide an abundance of nourishment, love and care to anyone we meet.
 
This means we begin to see the risen Jesus in the everydayness of life. This means we allow ourselves to be nourished by Jesus and be transformed more and more into his risen presence. Easter is every day that we love ourselves and others into life.