Distance: 24.7 km, Intermediate
“Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed Jesus.” – Luke 5:10b-11
“At once they left their nets and followed him.” – Matthew 4:20
Knowing that the journey begins at home, we need look no further than the example of the first disciples to see the courage taking that first step on the Way takes.
Jesus met those first followers where they were, in the everyday-ness of their lives. They were mending nets. They were casting out into the sea. They didn’t know what they would catch and, one would imagine, that they didn’t suspect that the Christ would walk into their lives that day. (Do any of us?)
Reading the stories of that first calling though (Mark 1:16-20; Luke 5:1-11; Matthew 4:18-22), we can imagine that something stirring in their hearts compelled them to follow Jesus. Likely they would have heard about him from the buzz around this new teacher. Rumors of his baptism and the “good news” he promised to the poor (both materially poor and spiritually poor) would have reached them. All this could be true, but, what is astonishing is that– in that moment– when he invited them to “Come after me,” they went.
They took the first steps in faith. They followed their God-given desires, even if they might not have been able to exactly name what those desires were. And in those first steps, they let go of apprehension and doubts. They surrendered to the road ahead. They left their nets— the comfort of their homes, their kin, and their professional certainty— to see if what captured their hearts about this teacher– Jesus– might be bigger than any certainty that might have previously bound them to the sureness of the sea.
Today, spend some time reading one of the accounts of the calling of the first disciples. Picture yourself by the seashore with them. Reflect on what are the nets that you might be freed from, if you could only lay them down. Is there a habit or disposition that holds you back or that keeps you from being in honest relationship with God and with others? Where did/does this habit or disposition come from? What would it require for you to “lay your nets down” today to follow Jesus freely and courageously?
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