When I heard Jesus tell me to drop my nets, I realized he was asking me to leave my desire for clarity and direction behind. I am called to walk alongside him in trust, even if I don’t know where we are going. After all, Jesus didn’t give the disciples any direction when he called them. He didn’t point out which way they were headed. He didn’t offer any clear insights or answers, not even a hint.
Nets can offer us safety, but safety is not always the better way. What looks like safety can end up entangling us. What looks like security can keep us from the true freedom into which God invites us.
It is good and right to be attentive to God’s movement in my life, but it is also good and right to trust that God will make the way known without my grasping or pushing, without my seeking or striving – without, in fact, a lot of effort on my part at all. This is not complacency or apathy, but rather, a receiving, a yielding, a surrendering in confident trust in God.
This message is excerpted from “Drop your nets.” by Michelle Derusha in the June 2020 Gather magazine. Today is the Third Sunday after Epiphany. Today we commemorate Agnes, martyr, c. 304.
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