The Boat He Gets Into

"Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land." (Luke 5:3)

Jesus needed a boat. The crowd was pressing in to hear the word of God, and he stood at the water's edge with nowhere to stand, and there were two boats at the shore, and the fishermen had gotten out and were washing their nets after a long and completely fruitless night. And Jesus got into Simon's boat. He did not ask if Simon was ready. He did not ask if Simon believed, or whether it had been a good night. He got in, asked him to push out a little from shore, sat down, and taught the crowds from it. Simon's boat became a pulpit, and Simon, who had caught nothing and was exhausted and had asked for none of this, sat in his own boat and listened.

So here is the question to sit with. What do you have that he could use? Not what you wish you had, not the thing you would offer him if you were further along and more impressive. The thing that is actually sitting there, the ordinary equipment of your ordinary life, the very thing you are exhausted from using badly, that produced nothing at all this week.

He does not wait for you to be ready before he climbs in. He gets into the boat you already have, in the condition it is in, and makes it the place from which he speaks. Stop apologizing for the smallness of what you carry. He is standing on the shore of it right now, asking to get in.