Just over four years ago I received an all expense paid trip to Israel that was furnished to me by AIPAC – the American / Israeli Public Affairs Committee. As luck would have it they wanted “Christian leaders” to know more of what was going on there politically and geographically. I have no idea where they got the notion that I was “Christian leader” but someone apparently convinced them of it.
Looking back I think the Holy Spirit outdid himself in persuading me to go. I was smack dab in the middle of starting a business – in fact, the first issue of this newspaper came out while I was in Jerusalem, but somehow I knew I was supposed to be there. It doesn’t always happen that way, of course, but it sure is nice when we get clarity. This was one of those times.
We toured the country for ten days and I spent two of them on the shores of the Sea of Galilee – spending the night in a small motel just a mile or so from where Jesus and Peter reportedly spent a great deal of time at the location of Peter’s mother’s house. The ruins are still there to see – excavated trenches and short walls that outline what was once a welcoming home and habitation of Jesus the Son of God. It is overwhelming to stand in front of that place.
The night before we enjoyed our dinner outside at a restaurant that had a deck that was perched out over the water. A man came and sang the Star Spangled Banner to us in his broken English. He had heard we were Americans and he wanted to honor us for all our country had done for Israel. Believe me when I say it was a surreal scene. Eating this extraordinarily wonderful meal a few feet above the Sea of Galilee while this man sang – and my mind wondered back to what it must have been like on that shore 2000 years ago.
The Sea of Galilee itself is not really a “sea” at all in the way we typically think of it. It is a large lake really – about 13 miles long and 8 miles wide and only 33 miles in circumference. By comparison Smith Mountain Lake has over 500 miles of shoreline. This unassuming Sea is a calm and exceedingly beautiful body of water with rolling hills that surround it (not unlike Smith Mountain Lake) and when you look out over it, it is easy to imagine the Disciples fishing in their small boats with their fathers – setting and resetting the nets and looking over to the village of Capernaum from time to time to see what the latest commotion was about.
The sun is climbing through the morning sky. The water laps gently at the boats. Wooden beams and planks offer an occasional soft moan as the vessels slowly dip and lean.
And then along comes a man about their age who beckons them from the shore. He stands there for a moment watching with some interest before calling across the water, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” And oddly they go.
Who knows why they went really. Maybe God had planted the seeds of this moment weeks, months – even years before. I’m guessing that there was something missing in their days – in their hearts – and they knew it. And when this Jesus came with his strange, straight up invitation, it somehow rang with a clarity and a fit that was unmistakable – like a mother’s call to her young – like a key made to fit the intricate tumblers of one particular lock. They knew who it was – and they responded.
They followed him.
Is there something missing in your days – some inner void that nothing else has been able to fill? Stop trying to fill it with things born of the world and be open to the Spirit’s small stirrings. Start listening for him – with a heart that makes no assumptions what His will might be for your life . . . and follow Him – wherever, whenever and however he leads.
The bill has been paid – the yoke is broken – you are His . . . Rest easy and joyfully in that . . . and Follow Him.
Stuart Revercomb is the Minister at Peace Presbyterian Church in Roanoke. Visit them on the web at peace-church.net
