If You Say So...

One day as Jesus was preaching on the shore of the sea of Galilee, great crowds pressed in on him to listen to the word of God. He noticed two empty boats at the water's edge, for the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. Stepping into one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out into the water. So he sat in the boat and taught the crowds from there.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish."

"Master," Simon replied, "we worked hard all last and didn't catch a thing. But if you say so, we'll try again." (Luke 5:1-5)

It's hard to obey when a command or rule doesn't make any sense to you. That's why I love Simon Peter in this passage. He was a fisherman. He fished for a living... which would lead us to believe that he knew a LOT about fishing: how to catch fish, where the best fishing spots are, the best times to fish.

So imagine what it must have been like to be fishing all night long and not catch a thing. And then, some dude - that you don't even know - has the nerve to tell you to stick your fishing nets back into the water. How easy it would have been to tell this guy to get lost! "You think you know better than me?! You think that I've been goofing off all night?"

But that's not how Simon responds. He simply says, "If you say so, we'll try again."

That's it.

"If you say so, we'll do it."

What a challenge to me, as I try to obey God's Word. So many times I want to ask questions and have everything figured out before I'm even willing to step out in faith.... But that isn't faith. That's taking control. Faith means trusting God, even when we don't understand. Even when life doesn't make sense.

So now this verse is posted above my desk: "If you say so, we'll try again." I only hope that it soon becomes my regular response to God, instead of a simple phrase written down on a notecard...

If You say, "Go", we will go. If You say, "Wait", we will wait.
If You say, "Step out on the water", and they say it can't be done,
we will fix our eyes on You and we will come.
(song lyrics, "If You Say Go")

Obedience or Death

"You NEVER talk back to your parents, whether you are right or wrong. You are NEVER disrespectful. If you refuse to obey them, you are kicked out of the village. Sometimes, you are killed."

This isn't just an idea from ancient days. This was said in my class last night by a student from Africa. Did you know that, in other cultures, children are never allowed to be disrespectful to their parents? It simply isn't tolerated. Seems so foreign to us, and indeed it is, for we are taught to stand up for ourselves and think independently. Not always a bad thing... but sometimes it teaches us to go our own way instead of walking in obedience.

We don't obey our parents.
We don't obey our God.

When we don't learn to submit to our parents, it's hard to learn to submit to Him.

Will we ever be able to give up control and simply follow Him?

"Stupid" Questions

I teach two public speaking classes at a college in Fort Wayne. My students, like most others, usually try to bend the rules or find a loophole to any assignment I give them.

Earlier this semester, I had a student ask me if he could show a 10-minute video clip for his speech. I looked at him - slightly laughing - and said, "The speech is only 6-8 minutes. You can show one minute of it, tops." (It is a speech, after all.) He walked away, and even though he knew what my answer would be, I think he was still upset with me because I told him that he couldn't show the entire thing.

Do you think we ever ask God these kinds of questions?
God, can I just slap her in the face? Just once?... No.
God, I don't really have to treat my teacher with respect, do I?... Yep.
God, the Sabbath? Isn't that just some Old Testament thing?... Nope, it's for you, too.

We wrestle with His Word, and sometimes we get upset because we can't do what we want to do. So we ask Him to change the rules. Or we try to get out of it, to find an exception.

I like how Scott put it on Sunday night... that we should obey first, and then we can ask why. For it is in our obedience that we show we trust Him, that we love Him.
Obey your parents. Okay, God. Why do I have to obey them?
Get rid of anger and bitterness. Yes, God. Why is this so important?

I can just imagine God looking at us - slightly laughing - as He listens to our inquiries. Our Father understands our difficulty in obeying Him. And I have to think that there's a part of Him that simply enjoys the fact that we are trying to follow in Christ's footsteps... "stupid" questions and all.

"But those who obey God's word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in Him" (1 John 2:5).