Dai­ly Reflec­tion
Jan­u­ary 10, 2022

The Aggres­sive Lover

Not on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, but on a peb­bly beach of a small cove on the coast of Mass­a­chu­setts. Lis­ten­ing to the rhythm of tide sweep­ing in and gar­gling out through the peb­bles, I watch, cap­ti­vat­ed by the life of fish­er­men.  I imag­ine the adven­ture of the fish­ing boats set­ting out to sea as the sun ris­es.  I imag­ine over­hear­ing the morn­ing chat­ter of greet­ings and friend­ly rib­bing of long­time friends as they gath­er their gear.

“Who brought the donuts?  Cof­fee?  What about Sally’s deli­cious cin­na­mon buns?!
Bets on – today the “Sal­ly Jane” brings in the heavy load! “Dorothy Anne” nets that pesky elu­sive tuna! Last boat in buys the first round!!”

Along­side their fathers, these men learned the joys, art, chal­lenges and dan­gers of being a fish­er­man.  These fish­er­men know the weath­er can turn on a dime.  They know unex­pect­ed high winds and rough seas can endan­ger their lives.  Still, these fish­er­men are wed­ded to the sea.

One ordi­nary day, unex­pect­ed­ly, Jesus showed up. Pos­si­bly these fish­er­men had heard of Jesus, maybe not.  Jesus “…said to them, “Fol­low me… And imme­di­ate­ly they left their nets and fol­lowed him.” When Jesus called, they “immediately…left their father…and the nets they were mend­ing.” Why would they respond “imme­di­ate­ly,” appar­ent­ly with­out a ques­tion? What was the urgency?  Fish­er­men was who they were, not just what they did. They were wed­ded to the sea. Why leave the famil­iar for the unknown? 

Imag­ine:  young men look­ing for some­thing new, an adven­ture? They want­ed to see “the world”?  Fish­ing was dan­ger­ous. Was Jesus seri­ous, or was this play­ful taunt­ing? Or, maybe there was some­thing deep stir­ring in their hearts. Some­thing that they could not name, but was real and could not be ignored or denied.  As Paul would lat­er con­fess, he had no choice. Did they feel they had no choice but to imme­di­ate­ly pick up and leave their boats, their nets, their liveli­hoods, their fam­i­lies and fol­low Jesus?

Why did Jesus “call(ed)” these par­tic­u­lar men? Why fish­er­men?  Maybe because fish­er­men were used to ven­tur­ing into the unknown. Used to being caught off-guard and vul­ner­a­ble. Maybe that was the rea­son – Jesus knew that in their vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty was their strength. Jesus knew they were the right ones. They were ready. Many whom Jesus called were not free to answer his call. Fear of the unknown, of let­ting go, out­weighed any glim­mer of desire to fol­low Jesus. They were not yet ready.  Not yet.

Am I aware of Jesus call­ing me? Occa­sion­al­ly, repeat­ed­ly maybe even aggres­sive­ly, urgent­ly? Do I take it seri­ous­ly? Am I ready?  What does Jesus see in me that I don’t see in myself?  A litany - I’m sin­ful, unwor­thy, fear­ful, vul­ner­a­ble and…. At times unable to love and be loved. Sure, I can also be kind, com­pas­sion­ate and lov­ing.  All of this, yet also long­ing for, search­ing for and desir­ing I know not what. “Exact­ly! “You are all of that and more - pre­cise­ly why I love you. Why I call you. You will hear me as the tide gar­gles through the shore’s peb­bles, in the dark, the dawn, in your joys and sor­rows.”  I lis­ten. I hear. “…, I love you, do not be afraid, fol­low me.” Where have you heard Jesus call­ing you? Lis­ten! Maybe it is less about me and more about Jesus, more about God – the Aggres­sive Lover.

The Good­news:  Jesus is call­ing me. Lord, that I may be (imme­di­ate­ly) ready.