An Incredible Adventure
“And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.’ And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.” Luke 5:10-11
What’s the best adventure you’ve ever been on? Mine was definitely the time when nine of my friends and I packed up two cars full of duffel bags and peanut butter sandwiches and drove across the country from Auburn to the Grand Canyon.
Before we left, I was really nervous. Sixty hours in a car? Peanut butter sandwiches for two meals a day? I wasn’t really sure how it was going to turn out, but I decided that if we didn’t get sick of each other, it would be a great trip. And do you know what? It was the best trip I’ve ever been on.
Going on adventures is nothing new. We see them all throughout the Bible. One of my favorite adventures from the Bible is when Jesus calls his disciples to leave everything they know, and follow Him on the greatest adventure the world would ever know. It makes sixty hours in the car seem pretty lame, honestly.
Jesus calling the disciples is really amazing. Here are these super normal guys who have a super normal job. They’re fisherman. They’re not famous speakers or kings or scholars. They’re just…average. I can definitely relate to that. I’m not famous or super talented. I don’t even have that many Instagram followers. But God can use me! If Jesus calls these random fisherman to go with Him on the biggest few years of His life, He can use my plain, ordinary life. And He will!
Every time I read this story, I’m amazed at the faith of the disciples. Leaving everything they know to follow Jesus - that’s risk!
Following Jesus is an incredible adventure, and it requires risk. We don’t have to worry about leaving our jobs as fisherman. Our risk looks different from the risk the disciples faced, but it’s rooted in the same place. As followers of Jesus, we risk looking weird when we’re not doing what everyone else is doing. We risk sacrificing comfort to focus on Christ. We risk the awkwardness of resisting peer pressure to follow the norm instead of Jesus.
About 2000 years ago, Jesus gave some obscure fisherman a choice: stay in their boats and live a comfortable life - a life like the one they’ve always known; or to literally abandon ship and go on the world’s greatest adventure - one full of risk, with the Son of God.
We have the same choice. Stay in the boat, stay safe, stay comfortable; or abandon comfort and normalness and follow Jesus. As we see from the disciples, we don’t have to be smart or funny or talented. We don’t need to have our lives together and neat. All we need to do is step outside of comfort, and into the greatest adventure we could ever hope to have - life with the Son of God.