Give Jesus Your Boat

 

Give Jesus Your Boat

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. (Col. 3:23-24)

Take a moment to contrast the following two workers. The first one slices the air with his hand making points and instructing the crowd. He’s a teacher, and from the looks of it a pretty good one. He stands on a beach rendering the slanted seashore his amphitheater. As he talks, his audience increases. But as the audience grows, his platform shrinks. The instructor steps back and back until the next step will take him into the water. That's when he spots another worker. A fisherman. Not animated but frustrated. He’d spent all night fishing but caught nothing. Despite double-digit hours' worth of casting, splashing and pulling the net, he’d come up empty. Unlike the teacher, the fisherman has nothing to show for his efforts. He draws no crowds; he doesn’t even draw fish – just nets. Two workers. One pumped up. The other worn-out. The first, fruitful. The second, futile. To whom do you relate?

If you empathize with the fisherman, you walk a pretty crowded path. Consider these statistics: One-third of Americans say, "I hate my job." Two-thirds of your fellow citizens labor in the wrong career. Others find employment success, but no satisfaction. Most suicides occur on Sunday nights. Most heart attacks occur on Monday mornings. Lots of people dread their work. Countless commuters begrudge the 83,000 hours their jobs take from their lives. If you're one of them, what can you do? Change careers? Perhaps. Maybe find one that better fits your design. But until you change, how do you survive? You still have bills to pay and obligations to meet. The problem might be less the occupation and more your outlook. So, before you change professions, try this: change your attitude toward your profession.

Jesus' word for frustrated workers can be found in the fifth chapter of Luke's gospel, where we encounter the teacher and the frustrated fisherman. And you've likely already guessed their names – Jesus and Peter. Random pockets of people populate the Galilean seacoast today, but in the days of Christ, it swarmed; it was an ant bed of activity. Peter, Andrew, James and John made their living catching and selling fish. Like other fishermen, they worked the night shift when cool water brought the bugs out and the fish to the surface to feed. And, like other fishermen, they knew the drudgery of a fishless night. While Jesus preached, they scoured their nets. And as the crowd grew, Jesus had an idea. “He noticed two boats tied up. The fishermen had just left them and were out scrubbing their nets. He climbed into the boat that was [Peter's] and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Sitting there, using the boat for a pulpit, he taught the crowd.” (Luke 5:2-3)

Jesus claimed Peter's boat. He didn't ask to rent it. Christ didn't fill out an application, initiate a Zelle payment to Peter’s bank account, or ask his permission; he simply boarded the boat and began to preach. He can do that, you know, because all boats belong to Jesus. And your “boat” is where you spend your day, make your living, and – to a large extent – live your life. The Uber you drive, the house or apartment you clean, the dental office you manage, the family you feed and transport – that’s your boat. Christ shoulder-taps us and reminds us: "You drive my truck." "You preside in my courtroom." "You work on my job site." "You serve my hospital wing." To us all, Jesus says, "Your work is my work."

Have you seen the painting The Angelus by Jean-Francois Millet? The painting depicts two peasants bowing in a field over a basket of potatoes to say a prayer, or the Angelus, which together with the ringing of the bell from the church on the horizon marked the end of a day’s work, all as a light falls from heaven. But notice – the rays don’t fall on the church. They don't even fall on the bowed heads of the man and woman. The rays of the sun fall on the wheelbarrow and the pitchfork at the couple's feet. God's eyes fall on the work of our hands. Our Wednesday’s matter just as much to him as our Sunday’s. He blurs the secular and the sacred. One stay-at-home mom keeps this sign over her kitchen sink: “Divine tasks performed here, daily.” An executive hung this plaque in her office: “My desk is my altar.” Both are correct. With God, our work matters as much as our worship. Indeed, work can be worship. Peter, the boat owner, later wrote: "You are a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God's holy nation, his very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God." (1 Pet. 2:9)

Next time a job application requests your prior employment, write "priest" or "priestess," because that’s what you are. A priest represents God, and you, my friend, represent God. So "let every detail in your lives – words, actions, whatever – be done in the name of the Master, Jesus." (Col. 3:17) You don't drive to an office; you drive to a sanctuary. You don't attend a school; you attend a temple. You may not wear a clerical collar, but you could because your boat is God's pulpit.

“When [Jesus] finished teaching, he said to Simon [Peter], ‘Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch.’ Simon said, ‘Master, we've been fishing hard all night and haven't caught even a minnow. But if you say so, I'll let out the nets.’" (Luke 5:4-5) A patient getting a root-canal shows more excitement than that. But who can blame him? His shoulders ache. Peter’s nets are packed away. A mid-morning fishing expedition has absolutely zero appeal. Still, he complies. "I will do as you say and let down the nets." (v. 5) Hardly hopping up and down with excitement but, then again, it’s nice to know that obedience doesn’t always wear goose bumps.

In the light of day and in full sight of the gathered crowd, the fishermen dip their oars and hoist the sail. Somewhere in the midst of the lake, Jesus gives the signal for them to drop their nets and "it was no sooner said than done – a huge haul of fish, straining the nets past capacity. They waved to their partners in the other boat to come help them. They filled both boats, nearly swamping them with the catch." (vs. 6-7) Peter and his partners stand knee high in gills. The catch and the message of their lifetimes surrounds them. And what’s the message?

Well, some say it's take Jesus to work and get rich! The presence of Christ guarantees more sales, bigger bonuses, longer weekends and an early retirement. With Jesus in your boat, you'll go from Galilean fishing to Caribbean cruising. The “prosperity gospel,” as some characterize it. But if this passage promises prosperity, Peter apparently didn’t get the memo. The catch didn't catch his eye. Jesus did. Though surrounded by scales of silver, Peter didn't see dollar signs. He saw Jesus. Not Jesus, the carpenter. Not Jesus, the teacher. Not Jesus, the healer. Peter saw Jesus, the Lord: mighty enough to control the sea, and kind enough to help a fisherman out. "Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell to his knees before Jesus. 'Master, leave. I'm a sinner and can't handle this holiness. Leave me to myself.'" (v. 8) What a scene. Christ in the middle of the common, everyday grind, standing shoulder to shoulder with cranky workers and directing fishermen how to fish and showing net casters where to throw their nets.

Suppose you were to do what Peter did? Take Christ to work with you. Invite him to superintend your nine-to-five. He showed Peter where to cast his nets. Won't he show you where to transfer funds, file the documents, or take the students on a field trip? “Holy Spirit, help me stitch this seam.” “Lord of creation, show me why this carburetor doesn’t work.” “King of kings, please bring clarity to this budget.” “Dear Jesus, guide my hands as I trim this customer’s hair.” Pray the prayer of Moses: "Let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us, confirming the work that we do. Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do!" (Ps. 90:17) “Confirm” can be used to validate both positive and negative outcomes, while “affirm” validates the outcome as being true. In other words, don’t just validate, or “confirm” the work I do, God, but “affirm” or bless what I’m doing as being for your glory.

But, sadly, maybe you just don’t see how God could possibly use or bless your work. Your boss has the disposition of a pit bull, hamsters have larger work areas than yours, and your kids have better per diems, especially if they’re athletes with NIL endorsements. You feel sentenced to the outpost of Siberia where hope left a long time ago on the last train out of your life. If this describes you, meet one final witness. He labored eighteen years in a Chinese prison camp, and the Communist regime rewarded his faith in Christ with the porta-potty assignment for the last six (6) of those years. His crime? Preaching the Gospel to about one hundred people in three different house churches in his neighborhood.

The camp where he was confined kept the human waste of its 60,000 prisoners in pools until it fermented into fertilizer. The pits seethed with stench and disease. Guards and prisoners alike avoided the cesspools and all who worked there, including this disciple. Despite putting rosin on his feet to help prevent the absorption of all sorts of disease, the stench pigmented his body after he'd spent only a few weeks in the pit. He couldn't scrub it out. So, imagine his plight – far from home, and even farther from the other prisoners. But somehow this godly man found a garden in his prison. "I was thankful for being sent to the cesspool. This was the only place where I was not under severe surveillance. I could pray and sing openly to our Lord. When I was there, the cesspool became my private garden." He then quoted the words of an old hymn: I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses. And the voice I hear falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses. And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known. "I never knew the meaning of this hymn until I had been in the labor camp," Pastor Chen Min Lin said.

Chen was eventually released and sent word to the small villages near Shanghai where he had ministered. He couldn’t help but wonder, after the Cultural Revolution in China during the 60’s and 70’s, if there would be any Christians who remained in the villages and who would be there to meet his train. 5,000 Christians greeted him on his arrival. In other words, God can make a garden out of the cesspool you may call work, if you’ll take him with you. For Peter and his nets, the prisoner and his garden, and for you and your work, the promise is the same: everything changes when you give Jesus your boat.

Grace,

Randy