Deep water: activating your faith

In yesterday’s blog I talked about Jesus’ call to find a great catch in the deep water. It’s a call he issued first to Peter. But he’s always calling the rest us out into uncomfortable places where we need him. To follow Jesus is to be available to do impossible things.

Notice that Jesus didn’t overwhelm Peter right off the bat. Fishing in the deep water may not have made sense, but it was still fishing.  Jesus doesn’t test us beyond what we can bear.*  He takes us to places that may be deep, but have some familiarity attached to them.

For many of us that will be a relationship that we find troubling.  Most of us have a friend or family member who we’ve stopped talking to.  The relationship is familiar, but feels impossible.  Reaching out to them with a letter, a conversation, or an apology may feel like deep water to us.

For others of you, putting out into the deep may be to ask God to change some bad habit that has come to characterize you.  You’re too critical, too negative, or too withdrawn.  God may want to deal with your heart before he has you extend your heart to others.

Or perhaps deep water for you may be a call to reach out to those who are different than you.  As the economy continues to tank, many will be thrown out of their homes – what will our response be?  Will we wait for the government to care for the poor and needy or will we do what the church has always done, inviting them into our lives?

Then, when we move beyond the baby steps of our own lives and relationships, God often wants to trust us with even greater challenges.  Beyond the deep water of our own brokenness lie oceans of impossibilities that allow us to partner with him in building his kingdom.  Our broken lives pale in comparison with the broken places in the lives of widows, orphans, criminals, addicts, and prostitutes around the world. 

*1 Cor. 10:13