An Obedience That Costs Your Expertise

"And Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men." (Luke 5:10)

Peter had fished all night and caught nothing. Then a carpenter climbed into his boat and told a professional fisherman where to fish, in the middle of the day, out in the deep water, which is exactly the wrong time and the wrong place, and any man in the trade would have known it. And Peter did it anyway.

That is the hinge of the whole story, and everything after it hangs on that one act, a man doing the thing that made no sense to him in the very place where he was the expert. The nets came up so full they began to tear. The other boat had to come. Both boats began to sink under the weight of it. And Peter, standing knee deep in more fish than he had ever seen, does not celebrate. He falls down and says, depart from me, I am a sinful man.

That is what happens when a man gets close enough to see who is actually in the boat with him. He does not feel worthy. He feels exposed. The blessing did not make him confident. The blessing made him aware. And Jesus does not leave. He says, do not be afraid.

This is where surrender begins, and notice where it begins: on a boat Peter owned, in water he knew, doing a thing he was certain would not work. It did not start with a decision made in a tent. It started with an obedience that cost him his expertise. That is usually where it starts for us too. Not with agreeing to something, but with letting Christ overrule the one place where you were sure you already knew better.