Discipleship Tides

I guess a couple years ago, I finally grasped how to fish with the tide and the current. It’s not just that I am a slow learner; I don’t get as much chance to practice saltwater fishing living in Kentucky.

In some ways, it is blind luck. You have some idea where the fish hang out and what they like to eat. And maybe the bite is on. But if you can add in some understanding of tide and current, you can really help yourself out.

The tide was going out of Biloxi Bay. We were fishing around pilings on the Bay Bridge. I knew which parts of the pilings to fish around without Cap’n Earl needing to tell me. And in one of the likely spots, I entered a country state of mind. Catching black drum like they were going out of style. And then later, I caught a really nice redfish under the I-110 bridge.

The work of discipleship is similar. You can set yourself up for success the best way you know how, and… nothing. But if you make sure to not quit, and you keep doing what you know to do, what Jesus said to do, at some point, it starts to hit. And you may have more work than you are ready for.

It’s kind of like the parable of the sower. You continually cast seed. Most time, nothing. It falls on hard soil. Thin soil. Thorny soil. Nothing grows. You think I should just give up. But then one seed falls in good soil. And notice—this is key!—Jesus’ parable never says that we are capable of telling which soil is good. When the seed falls in the good soil, it produces a crop, 30, 60, 100 times what was sown. It becomes worth it. It becomes the pearl of great price. The treasure found in a field.

You say, “But Dirtbag, you started talking about tides and fishing and then went to the sower. You’re mixing metaphors, buddy boy.”

Fine. How bout this:

Luke 5:1-7: On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he 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.

Why did Jesus call fishermen? Because they naturally get what it takes to do evangelism and discipleship:

They fish any time, day or night. Will get up early.

Not afraid of hard work. Not afraid to get dirty.

If something is working, they do more of it.

If something is not working, they wait until it does, or try something else, and come back again to what they tried before.

If they get skunked today, they will be back again tomorrow.

They are always ready to catch a lot of fish.

Some days, like the disciples in Luke 5, they don’t have anything to show for their effort. But then one day, they do.

That’s me right now. Some things are popping and I don’t exactly know why. I’m fishing with some good buds, and Jesus is bringing us to where we are fishers of men and women. We’re just doing what Jesus said to do. We’re available for Him when He says so.

I think it was Robert Coleman who told me this: evangelism is an internal struggle first. You have to decide to be willing to go where He says to go, do what He says to do, and say what He says to say. But if you can do that, it’s easy.

Sowing or fishing, do what Jesus tells you to do. And be ready for the multiplication factor. You sow and it falls in the right soil. You fish in the right spot. And when there is an abundance, keep on. The disciples you make, some of them are going to sow into good soil and fish in the right spot. And that keeps going on and on and on, far past your knowledge of their harvest or catch… far past your lifetime.