A Reflection on Mark 1:14-20
They too were in a boat mending their nets. (Mark 1:19)
We tend our nets. We go through our days, and we work and work and work. We tend the nets of our lives, keeping our faces down, and we don’t see the bigger picture. Our nets have become snares. They keep us busy so that we cannot escape. We can’t possibly escape. We must keep producing, keep performing, keep proving. We just have to keep going. We don’t dare look up, because if we did, what would we find? What if we found that our nets didn’t matter at all? That in this vast, wide world, the things that we have spent our lives on are actually quite worthless? And if we stop, we have to face the emptiness inside. So, no, we can’t look up; we can’t stop. We must keep tending, keep working, keep busy. Worthless and empty, we are like machines that produce or animals that consume.
But we are not machines. We are not animals. And Jesus comes to us to call us out of this tiny existence that we have created for ourselves, and into the wide world that the Father has created for us. He reaches out, lifts up our chins, looks into our eyes, and says, “Come, follow me. You are bigger than this. The world is bigger than this. You are trapped in this prison of your existence that you have made for yourself. I call you out. Come, take part in something bigger than yourself. Come, see what the Father has planned for you. You are part of something bigger, a bigger net, a bigger story. Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
May we lift up our faces and open our eyes! May we break out of our anxieties over daily life and see that the world is bigger, God is bigger. We are not the heroes of our own stories. When we believe that, we become trapped in despair because how are we going to rescue ourselves? We have a hero, and He has already rescued us. He only begs that we come and follow Him to see what greater part we have to play, what greater mission He has made us for. We were made for more. We were made for adventure. We were made for discipleship. Let us accept the call of Jesus in our hearts and start living the life we have been created for!
Jesus, I will come. I will follow. Help me to let go of the nets, the nets of distraction, of proving and performing and perfection, of sin and addiction. Lord, please shine a light on the special way you have called me to serve, the part of the story that you have written me into, that you have created me for. Amen.
by Katie