S239P5 – Doing much with little: a single cast

Lk. 5:4-7

And when [Jesus] had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”  And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!  But at your word I will let down the nets.”  And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.  They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them.  And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.

We all know life can be frustrating.  Sometimes life’s frustrations come because we have plans and dreams we desire to see fulfilled, but our efforts seem to get foiled time and again.  Other times our plans are more serious in nature because they involve not luxuries or wants but needs.  When those plans fail, the loss can seem even greater.  Part of this disappointment can be the idea drilled into our heads that lack of success does not mean we throw in the towel.  We are taught that we eventually will succeed if we just keep trying.  Yet, each of us has reached limits of one kind or another.  We recognize that there are times when our efforts simply will not be enough no matter how much we press forward.

Simon had been working all night but caught nothing.  Actually, he had not been working alone.  What we see here is a group effort by arguably professional fisherman just trying to catch some fish.  What Simon realized was that all of their efforts, all of the repeated castings of their nets, amounted to the same result as if they had not cast their nets at all.  Their way did not work even though they tried it over and over again, but the instruction from Jesus made a difference in one way.  It was not the plan of men but the plan of God.  The plan of these men was to stop.  Simon moved forward simply because the word came from God.  He expected a different result not because he was doing anything differently but because the Lord was directing the work. 

This seems to me to be a contrast in effort.  On one end of the spectrum is our effort.  Even when we work with the best of intentions, our results are naturally limited, and our greatest limit is that we cannot guarantee a result.  On the other end of the spectrum is God’s effort, which operates perfectly even when operating through us.  The result here was not just a catch but an unusually large catch.  While all their efforts gained them nothing, moving once under God’s direction gained them more fish than they could handle.  It was his effort working through their willingness to move.  Father, give us faith that looks beyond our own limits, trusting that following your lead will yield results beyond our expectations.