Sinking Ships — Answering The Call - A Redeeming The Time Blog

Sinking Ships

By Grant Gaines

Several years ago the Bible College I attended took a trip to Joplin, Missouri to help rebuild the community after a massive tornado had devastated the town a year earlier. Our class was split up among various work sites and work projects. Myself and about 20 other students just so happened to be assigned to a rock moving crew.

At this job we were asked to take stones that were scattered all over the construction site and throw them into what looked like a moat that surrounded a slab of cement where a collapsed house was going to be rebuilt on. With our marching orders in hand, our crew went to work for two straight days starting at 8am and ending at 4pm with one 30-minute lunch break in between.

I’m a little strange in the sense that I actually enjoy manual labor and being out in the warm sun but by the end of the second day, even I was pretty worn out from carrying and throwing all the stones.

Around 3:30pm on our last day as we started to clean up the site from our work, our crew looked helplessly into the “moat” to see that we had barley even knocked out a quarter of the work that needed to be done in order for the foundation to be fully laid. As we were looking down in a weary silence, we heard the sound of a large bull dozer rumbling across the construction site in our direction.

The dozer started scooping rocks into its giant front bucket and throwing them into the moat. I kid you not, in a matter of fifteen minutes the bull dozer had completely filled the moat to the brim while we all just stood there in utter amazement at the efficiency of the machine’s work (and in bewilderment as to why they didn’t just use the bull dozer for the entire project rather than putting us to shame by our lousy efforts). The bull dozer did in minutes what would have taken us days, seemingly even years to accomplish!

What a great illustration that is of us when we try to accomplish things on our own rather than inviting God into our work. We can do everything in our power to accomplish the task at hand, but unless we recognize our weaknesses and God’s strength, we will be stuck throwing rocks into a moat for years on end with nothing to show for it. Twice the apostle Peter experienced what this frustration felt like at both the beginning and ending of his time with Jesus. Let’s take a moment to look at his story to see if we can’t learn a thing or two from his frustrations in order to avoid having frustrations of our own.

We are first introduced to Peter in Luke 5 when Jesus was teaching a large crowd early in the morning. Peter had just returned from an all-night fishing expedition but came back with empty nets. To make matters worse, this wasn’t just a fun weekend fishing trip that Peter went on with his buddies; fishing was his job! There Peter was-alone and empty handed.

But as the crowd grew and grew Jesus had no place to stand on the sandy beach in order that everyone could hear Him. So, being the creative Guy He is, Jesus got into Peter’s boat and pushed off from the shore a bit as He continued to teach so that all of the crowd could see and hear Him.

After He was done preaching, Jesus looked at Peter and said, “Put out into the deep water, and let down the nets for a catch” (Luke 5:4, NIV).

Before we continue the story it’s important to remember that all Peter knew of Jesus was that He was a teacher. The two had never met before. But despite his lack of familiarity with Jesus, there must have been something about Christ that made Peter trust Him to a degree because Peter responded to Christ’s request by saying, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because You say so, I will let down the nets” (Luke 5:5, NIV).

Peter’s time with Jesus concluded in a similar manner in John 21. Peter was fishing with his buddies after the death of their Leader when Jesus showed up on the scene unannounced. Although Peter and the disciples had been following Christ for three years to that point, John 21:4 (NIV) tells us, “Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.”

I like to imagine that Jesus changed His voice (maybe used a cool Scottish or Australian accent to throw off His disciples for a bit) when the Unknown Spectator shouted to the disciples, “‘Friends, haven’t you caught anything?’ ‘No’ [the disciples] answered. ‘Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some'” (John 21:5-6, NIV).

Just as He had done in Luke 5, Jesus “just so happened” to stumble upon Peter after an unsuccessful fishing outing. Peter had spent all night trying to catch fish only to come up empty handed in both stories.

However, as soon as Jesus entered the scene in both Luke 5 and John 21, Peter had a brand new problem. No longer did he have empty nets, he now had a sinking ship as the number of fish he caught per Christ’s command was so large that the boat Peter was in could hardly carry the load! And notice the contrast in the amount of effort exerted when Peter tried to accomplish a task opposed to when he did it Jesus’ way. Peter spent all night slaving away trying to catch some fish but came up empty handed. Contrarily, when he followed Christ’s commands it took but a split second to overflow his nets to the point of sinking his ship! Talk about a time saver!

With that example in mind, let me ask you a question: are you trying to do things on your own, or are you bringing Jesus into the equation? Or another way to ask the question, how faithfully and fervently are you bringing your work, relationships, and worries before the only One who can actually do something about those?

We can labor, strain, and work our tails off, but unless we bring God on our boat, we will be just as empty handed and out of energy as Peter and my rock throwing crew was after working like dogs all day. But it’s when we allow God to take the reins of our life, our jobs, and our relationships that we, like Peter, receive a blessing that is exceedingly beyond what we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20).

Don’t you think it’s time to stop worrying about empty nets and start letting God sink your ship with an abundance of blessing? It all starts with knowing God’s will (which is made evident through His Word) and praying for His power.

Let today be the day that God “sinks your ship.”