It Just Takes Time and Practice
Fishing can be a slow and tedious process. You can spend hours baiting, casting, reeling, and repeating. You can move to different spots and try again, maybe with better results, maybe not.
Some things come more naturally to certain people. I was never great at fishing. I think part of it was my lack of patience. Part of it was a lack of skill.
I remember going fishing with a friend who was an avid fisherman. He had a nice fishing boat and regularly competed in fishing in tournaments. One time, I went out on his fishing boat with him. He was catching fish regularly, and I wasn’t catching anything.
It was frustrating seeing him catch fish while I came up empty.
I finally asked why he was catching fish and I wasn’t. He explained that a big part of the problem was that I wasn’t feeling the strikes on the lure. He showed me some things to do differently, and before long, I caught one. That didn’t come naturally to me. We all have things we’re better at and things we struggle with.
We need to use our strengths and work to improve our weaknesses.
In Matthew 4:18-22, Jesus is walking by Lake Galilee when He calls to Simon and his brother Andrew to follow Him and fish for people instead of fish. They leave their nets and follow Him. A little further along, Jesus calls James and John to follow Him. They leave their boat and their father and follow Him as well.
These men were professional fishermen. They made their living fishing, and they were good at it.
But just because they were skilled at fishing for fish didn’t mean there weren’t challenges and issues when it came to fishing for people. Peter was impulsive and quick to act, which caused problems at times. James and John were called the Sons of Thunder for a reason.
These disciples of Jesus weren’t perfect, yet He still chose them. They used their strengths and worked on improving their weaknesses.
We often think that to follow Jesus we must be perfect. That belief leads us to hide our flaws and pretend to be something we’re not.
Perfection is not what God expects. Just look at the men He chose to be His disciples. He doesn’t expect perfection from us either.
What He does expect is that we follow Him and keep casting our nets.
