My dad must have attended a bible study class that pointed out the fact that Peter and his boys had been out all night, and they caught nothing on one occasion. Dad just had to have been taught that the fishermen in the text he was taught from during his childhood, went out to fish at night because that is when you have the best chance of catching fish. I can’t think of any reason, other than what I just mentioned, for him to take me and my older brother, not yet teens, to a nearby reservoir to fish all night long. We had never fished before! Personally, I don’t like to fish! I don’t like touching the bait! I don’t like being too close to still waters because somewhere I heard that still waters run deep! Yes, you guessed it! I don’t know how to swim.
Dad left my brother and I in a remote spot, surrounded by trees, bushes, insects, and darkness. Did this darkness thing have anything to do with what Peter and his boys did? How dark was it? Well, if it wasn’t for the fact that there were no clouds covering the moon, we would have been in pitch dark. Like I said, we were not yet teens, just children. And here we are fishing, in darkness! I asked myself, “Why?”. My question stemmed from the fact that I never saw Dad go fishing and we never had fish for dinner. We didn’t have an aquarium. We were not trying to earn a cub scout award. So, why are we fishing?
I have set this true story up by describing the setting. Now, let me go on with the story about “The Catch.” At some point in the night or in the early morning hours before the darkness clocked out and the sun reported for duty, I caught a fish! It was a carp. It was not a trout, not a yellow perch, not a catfish, but a carp. After catching the carp, it stayed on the hook until Dad picked us up. He took it off the hook and we carried it home. The same question enters my mind, “Why?” Without expressing my question aloud, my dad must have known what was on my mind. Sometimes, our body language does communicate exactly what is on our mind. My body language must have been saying, “I’m not doing nothing with that fish! I’m definitely not eating it! It has that disgusting bait in its inward parts!” I am sure that my body language gave me away because Dad looked at me and said, “This is going to be your dinner. You will have to eat this tonight.” Can you imagine what my body language was saying, words that I dared not say aloud? Then Dad said, “Before you eat, you are going to have to take care of your catch, clean it.” Clean it did not mean just rinsing it off thoroughly, but that meant bleeding the fish, removing the scales, gutting the fish, and rinsing the fish. I reluctantly did it, but once again, my body language revealed my disdain, reflected my disgust, and relayed my disparaging thoughts. Nevertheless, I was not disobedient to Dad. Mom cooked the fish. Mother’s Day just passed, but let me say, “Thank God for mothers!”
One last task remained regarding “The Catch.” I had to eat it. Eat it! An emphasis needs to be placed on the words “had to.”
I never became a fisherman, primarily because of that experience. But I did become a fisher of men. You know what? (Say, “What?”) I found out that catching men required just as much work as catching a fish, and the best catches are found by going into the darkness. Think about it!
Furthermore, yes, you have to do the work after you catch a fish and bring him or her to the peaceful shore. You have to teach them to bleed out that which was no longer needed, work with them to remove the scales that have been blocking efforts to penetrate their hearts, help them gut out all the practicing sin that resides deep inside them, and ensure they are rinsed in living water. Now, we don’t have to consume the men and women we catch as fishers of men and women, but we do have to make sure they become “fish” who can no longer do the things they used to do, but rather they carry out a new purpose for the rest of their lives.
You have had a true story, a straightforward teaching, so now let me give you a challenge. Go out and be a fisher of men, women, boys and girls. Start in the “waters” filled with fish in your nearby area. After you experience “The Catch” do the rest of the work! Catch them and let them catch on to pressing on toward the mark of the higher calling in Christ Jesus.
I know you may have to go to work or do other things today, but take some time to go fishing. Be ready to tell others about “The Catch!” By the way, in the closing verse, know that Jesus is speaking to you as one of His disciples. Be blessed!
“And He said to them, “Follow Me [as My disciples, accepting Me as your Master and Teacher and walking the same path of life that I walk], and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19 The Amplified Bible)
Committed to the climb,
Mark L. King