Piloting Faith: Casting nets that change you

A Word for the Day...

The story says that just after the disorienting days following Jesus' resurrection, the disciples decided to go fishing. I imagine it was a way to normalize what had been a traumatic time. Fishing is comforting. It's what they knew how to do. So seven of the disciples spend the day out on the water casting nets for fish. The trouble was: they weren't catching any. Nothing was biting.

As they neared the shore, a man standing on the beach said, "Throw your nets on the other side of the boat, and then you will catch the fish." They tried it, and he was right! Their nets were filled to the breaking point with so many fish that they could barely haul them in. As it turns out, that guy on the beach was Jesus.

I've been thinking about that story a great deal in these days of deep change.

My sense is that the world is coming to a shared realization that we were fishing but not catching nourishing food. We were doing what we knew to do, what we were trained to do, what our parents taught us to do. But we were losing everything we valued in the process. Our days blended into endless hours of casting nets with diminishing returns.

And then...

A virus hits, and everything changes. "Cast your nets on the other side," the Spirit whispers. So we do. Then we learn the most important lesson: Sometimes life takes a turn that changes everything. The way through is to embrace the new.

We are in this together,

Rev. Cameron Trimble
Author of 60 Days of Faith: A Devotional

Prayer for the Week

THIS IS MY PRAYER ROOM
(excerpt)

Pray with me, say the words,
ring the bell, we’re almost there.
This part is my favorite,
it’s where god feels the closest.
So ask for mercy, or for help,
or forgiveness, no need to tell.
For my story is your story,
is every body’s story.

- Mícheál Ó’Súilleabháin
from EARLY MUSIC ©2019 Mícheál Ó’Súilleabháin & Many Rivers Press

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