Jesus is Better at Your Job

JESUS IS BETTER AT YOUR JOB THAN YOU ARE

I've been working in sports for over 40 years. I've served at the Rose Bowl game, a World Series, numerous NCAA

"March Madness" events, countless sport championships (ranging from cross country to basketball to volleyball to

baseball. I've met with national boards, convinced university presidents, recruited 15 universities to join our

organization, balanced budgets, warred with coaches, lobbied national organizations, served on national boards,

chaired sport committees, written successful legislation, and survived a national lawsuit.

I'm pretty experienced at and, well, pretty good at what I do.

So were Peter and Andrew and James and John. They were generational fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. They'd

worked with their fathers, as their fathers likely had before them. They owned their own business, sailed a small flotilla

of boats, repaired broken equipment, weathered storms, and fed their families and the families of their clients in

Capernaum.

And sometimes, even as experienced as they were and as knowledgable of their trade and the whims of the fish of the lake, they came up empty. I believe

fishermen would say the "got skunked." Nada. Only empty - and torn - nets.

Then along comes this rabbi who asks to borrow their boat as a speaking platform. Water, you know, amplifies sound and serves as a natural loudspeaker.

So they let Him sit in the boat and say His thing. We don't even know what exactly He said to the folks gathered on the shore that day. The Bible in Luke 5

doesn't record it.

Then this rabbi - previously a carpenter from Nazareth - says, "Hey, guys, push back out to the deep water and toss those nets in." See that's the wrong thing

to do to a fisherman. They'd been up all night. They were tired and hungry and, well, didn't need crazy directions from a preacher about how to do THEIR jobs.

I mean, if the Guy was even any good at speaking, wouldn't someone have recorded that just-finished sermon?

But Peter says, "Yeah, sure. Whatever you want, Dude." The implication is, "this is a dumb idea and You have no clue about fishing, but just to get You out of

my boat..."

And so many fish fill the nets they have to call the other boats over to haul it all in.

Sure. Jesus pulled off the miracle of a great catch. He will do it again at the END of the Gospel of John, just to remind them Who really is Lord of all Creation.

But one thing strikes me about this little epic. Jesus is better at their job than they were.

Safe to say, He's also better at sports administration, doctoring, accounting, parenting, teaching, police work, bus driving...and most certainly house (and church)

building!

So I can go to work with a little more humility now. I'm not "all that" in my profession. There are dozens, maybe thousands, of sports professionals around the

world better than I am.

But they aren't better at my job than Jesus. And neither are you. Let Him show you how to catch a fish or guide a student or mend a net. Or a marriage.