Two lives, One Story
A young boy steps mindlessly beside his father’s flock of sheep. A few stones in his hands are his only distraction from the monotonous bleating and endless munching of the sheep. One stone skips across a brook. Another makes a mark on a tree as it ricochets harmlessly down.
A young man slouches casually in the stern of his boat as he bobs on the waves of the sea. The nets have been up and down at least a hundred times, and, other than an occasional tuft of seaweed, they have been completely fruitless. The work isn’t bad (unless it rains), and it’s what he knows. He’s been a fisherman since he was a fisherboy.
Mundane: ordinary; commonplace, not unusual, often boring. It’s how most of life is spent. It’s the stuff we leave out of our diaries. And it’s precisely the place where God loves to show up.
The Baby Brother
David was the youngest of the eight sons of Jesse. His heart was filled with adventure, but his days were occupied with sheep. His was the typical experience of baby brothers down through the ages.
Even after the occasional wrestling match with a wild lion or bear in defense of his closest companions – the sheep – he would return home to half-attentive (and quarter-believing) listeners to the recounting of his battle only to be rewarded with yet another less-than-glorious task. Today it’s delivery duty and fact-finding at the war camp where his three oldest brothers are serving. (1 Samuel 17)
A Fisherman’s Tale
Simon Peter is a fisherman. It’s what he does. It’s what he is. He fishes. Every day revolves around tides and nets and weather reports and hotspots. Some trips out are better than others. Last night was as bad as they come (at least it hadn’t rained), and now it was that part of the fisherman’s routine when he checks, repairs, and readies his nets to start it all again tomorrow. Even without any fish, Simon Peter is a fisherman.
Today, the crowds come to the shore not to buy his fish (if only he had caught some!), but to hear and be near Jesus. There is something in the air more refreshing than the breeze off of the water. It’s an anticipation. An attention to the words that Jesus is speaking. The crowd is buzzing, but begins to hush as Jesus steps into Simon’s boat. ‘Push us out a little bit, Simon.’, he says. Well, a little sooner than he had expected to be back in his boat, but……(shove, jump, glide). (Luke 5)
David and Simon Peter. Two illustrations of how God can and does take what we do everyday and transform it into what He does everyday. Illustrations of God making the mundane marvelous.
Mundane Offerings, Marvelous Results
As David pulls into the camp to make his delivery and check on things for his father, he’s eager to hear about and join in the action of the frontlines. But as it turns out the extent of the action has been one giant Philistine trash talking the men and God of Israel for the past month and the men of Israel shivering in their armor talking big about how someone should face the giant and take him out. Talk. Brave words from scared men.
Now, what David lacked in physical stature he more than compensated with faith. The kind of faith that sees beyond the physical stature of the giant to the spiritual power of God. So to David there is a simple fix to the problem. Step up to the big bully and shut him up. But how? (That’s the other guys wondering. Not David.)
For David God makes all the difference. His brothers don’t get it, and they belittle his confidence. Sounds similar to what Goliath has been spewing for the past 40 days. Saul doesn’t get it either, and he tries to bolster David up physically with his armor. An external show with no heart within. Like big words, but no guts.
But David gets it. My everyday plus God’s everyday equals look out if your on the other side. My mundane in the service of God equals marvelous.
Simon gets it, too. While he finds faith breaking the mold of his day on a smaller scale in his encounter with Jesus, the ramifications to his life (and the world) are just as big (if not bigger).
Jesus literally steps into Simon’s world when he gets into his boat. But he doesn’t stop there. We don’t know the specifics of Jesus’ discourse that day, but perhaps it had something to do with believing and obeying (they’re really the same thing). As Jesus wraps up his words to the people he continues into Simon’s everyday existence by saying, ‘Simon, fish. Do what you do.’
Simon gives his disclaimer about the previous night’s lack of success, and humors Jesus by going through the motions. But this time by faith. ‘I’ll put my nets down by faith, not by routine today’, Simon basically says. And the result? Marvelous. Especially to Simon. Too many fish to hold in one boat. So much success he had to bring in his friends.
But then Jesus takes the marvelous factor up a notch with Simon. He says, ‘You’ve seen what I can do with your everyday life. Now let me show what I want to do with you.’ This time Simon’s nets go down, but not into the water. Rather, they fall to the sandy beach and Simon follows Jesus into a new deep water seeking a different catch.
Same Story Today
Peter (a.k.a. Simon) writes in his first epistle that everything we do should be done so that ‘in everything God may be glorified…’ (chapter 4). In everything. Peter mentions speaking and serving, but he may have considered putting fishing on the list as well. And certainly it could include what you and I do every day at work or school or play. Everything means every thing.
Whatever it is we do or however it is we look on the outside, realize that it is God that makes the difference. And he is not limited by our resume, stature, age, or hometown (‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?!’). Place whatever faith you’ve got – big like David’s or seemingly fleeting like Simon’s – and watch, better yet marvel at, what God will do through what you can do.
