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Astonished, He Remembered
Author : kate johnson
If something were to intrude upon you and I in order to rescue us from ourselves, what would you expect his proposal to look like? Well, we may expect that he should be big in his display of wonders and small in his demands of us. But there is a story which reveals just the opposite.
Once, Jesus of Nazareth surprised Simon Peter. When he astonished Peter it was with a curiously humble display of his wonder.
And yet, this same divine courter of mortals frightened many men away with a very sweeping display of his unsettling demands.
Simon Peter was bound within the same tired circuits of habit that you and I are bound within today. He, like we, had forgotten about a certain absolute heart of things he ' d abandoned in exchange for the small and settled good enough he was able to secure for himself. But on a certain day, in a certain boat, and with a certain man Simon Peter was astonished and he remembered.
Christ knew Simon Peter. He knew about all his ambitions and his struggles, and even his secret. It was a secret Peter knew about, though he could never quite put his finger on it. C.S. Lewis called this secret an incommunicable longing that makes you, you and that makes me, me. And that made, well, Simon who he was.
Simon loved to fish. Christ knew that. Perhaps Peter had thought to satisfy his tired heart by investing himself in that fishing. After all, if he and his friends could gain enough boats and enough equipment, perhaps they could one day exchange their boats for ships and their nets for hammocks.
That seemed simple enough. Yet, every trip was as the casting of hope and the catching of the same old reality.
Christ met Peter in the very boat where he ' d sat fishing all night long, and with the very nets he ' d caught nothing with, in spite of all nght casting. Indeed, he and his men were just finishing washing their nets after a long night of disappointment: when Christ showed up and said,
"Put out to the deep water, and then you and your men let down your nets."
Right on time! God ' s timing in that moment didn ' t seem to do a thing for his omniscience; the divine didn ' t seem to look very bright, here.
Christ met Peter at the end of himself. There was no desire left within Peter to comply and so labor again. He was all finished. His mind was set on heading home for a meal and a rest.
And yet, this is how Christ began his proposal to Peter. Peter complied, though reluctantly.
Of course, once out there on the sea, we sit waiting for him to part it; or we wait for him to deliver some magnificent speech.
Yet, he does not speak, he is silent. He does not labor, he watches Peter and his men as they let down their nets. Those nets went down and suddenly: the fish seemed created for this very moment. The fish came---all of them! And Peter was happy; he smiled. At first he labored joyfully, dishing the fish into the boat. I ' ll bet he laughed, just like back when he was a kid. And he certainly hollered to his friends to bring their boats over, for his was ready to sink with all the fish.
Somewhere in the midst of all this wonder, Peter became suddenly aware.
He remembered and he halted. His eyes met the eyes of such an ordinary looking man. He looked into those eyes and he said,
"Go away from me, Lord. I am a sinful man."
It takes a lot to astonish us today. We stand facing pleasure and we deprive ourselves of her longing to sneak up on us and catch us off our guard. Christ surprised Peter on that day. It was such a quiet and intimate wonder. Peter became, in that moment, the object of a shocking love.
He remembered the old memory of a love that must know us. He remembered a desire for a love that delights in us. He remembered the desire for a love that cannot be limited by all our flaws and misdeeds and greed. Peter awoke to a reality he ' d most forgotten. He saw how unqualified he ' d become for such a love; and he was very much afraid.
Peter, like you and I, had turned his back on the absolute heart of things. Now---he wanted back in. In our tired existence, we have given up on and forgotten all about this heart of things. The groove deepens and we settle into our circuits of good enough. But, at once, this Man caused Peter to want out of it. He wanted Christ to pull him off on a wild tangent to the course in which he ' d become so accustomed and attached. He was seeing something more spacious and it was refreshing for him to have stepped out to breath this open air.
Simon Peter, therefore, cast his confession before this Messiah in hopes that this one would not throw his desire back to him still empty. And Christ ' s proposal?
"Do not be afraid." Jesus said to him. "From now on you will be catching men."
Peter was immediately captivated. He left everything to follow this startling man.
Author's Resource Box
The Holy Bible and C.S. Lewis ' Surprised by Joy
Article Source:
Christian Articles Resource
