“As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will make you fishers of men.’ At once they left their nets and followed him.
Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.” (Matthew 4:18-21 NIV)
It was my sophomore year in college and I had been a Jesus-follower less than a year. I was learning and growing, but I was troubled. The idea of missions (going to a foreign country or different culture to proclaim the Good News about Jesus) kept coming up. A friend said he didn’t think one could truly be a Christian without going “overseas.” A student talked about the opportunity to spend the summer working in Communist Eastern Europe delivering Bibles and encouragement to believers there. My RA was excitedly talking about his future plans to go to India to serve in ministry there. But I found little excitement in the talk because I was scared God might call me somewhere I didn’t want to go. I was perfectly happy living in the good ol’ US of A and didn’t want to go anywhere else.
During that same time, I was invited to go to a conference over Christmas Break called Urbana. It was a conference solely focused on God’s mission around the world and challenged students to seek how they could be a part of it. To this day, I have no idea why I chose to go, but I did. And I was miserable from the moment I arrived. Speaker after speaker spoke passionately about cross-cultural ministry. In the exhibition hall literally hundreds of mission organizations had displays and representatives informing students of opportunities to participate in God’s world mission. I was surrounded by the very thing I so wanted to avoid. I desperately wanted to hold onto my net.
Peter and Andrew were fishermen from families of fishermen. It was their life. It was the same for brothers James and John. Then along comes Jesus and He asks them to leave their nets and follow Him. Leave their way of life. Leave their families. Leave everything that was familiar. And they did. No doubt it was a very difficult, perhaps even agonizing, decision, but they trusted Jesus enough to make it.
During that December week long ago, I began to realize the Lord was calling me to trust Him. All the interactions I was having about missions were no coincidence. Jesus was calling me to be willing to leave my net, my way of life, to follow Him. I didn’t want to do it and that was the source of my misery. My Lord was calling me and I was refusing to follow.
On the final night of the conference, Billy Graham spoke and offered up a challenge to us: Trust God and surrender your will to Him. And, very hesitantly, I did. “Lord, I don’t want to go overseas, but if that is what you want, then I am willing.” Immediately, I felt more relief than fear and in the ensuing months I gradually became more comfortable with the idea. A year and a half later, I committed to an internship with a mission in Eastern Europe. When I surrendered my will, my willingness to leave my net soon followed.
You may have a well-established life or long-held dreams of what your life will be like. But what if the Lord has something else in mind for you? What if, “Come follow me,” means leaving your net behind? Will you trust Him enough to do it? Today, know that God never asks of you more than you are able to give, but if He is asking, you must trust Him that He will enable you to do it. And my experience tells me He is faithful to do just that.
© Jim Musser 2014
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