Fishers and Bakers and Computer Programmers of Men and Women
When Jesus invited Peter and James and John to be His disciples, He promised that He would make them Fishers of men. He invited them to leave their nets behind and follow Him, but He did not tell them that fishing was a waste of time and they were stupid for having chosen that profession and He had better not ever catch them thinking about fish again. Christ could have chosen anyone to follow Him and part of the reason that He chose Peter, James and John is because they were fishers. There were certain skills and attributes that these men developed as fishers that would be invaluable in their new vocations as disciples of Christ and fishers of men and women. Just like in fishing where you’ve got to cast out your nets and draw them in empty hundreds of times, in preaching the gospel you have to let the glorious message of the gospel fall on a lot of deaf ears and hard hearts before you find someone. Fishers of fish know to go where there are fish, and Fishers of men and women know to go where there are people willing to listen. Fishers of fish go out in all weather, and so do fishers of men and women. God needs all of us to help build up His kingdom. Whether we are sculptors or bricklayers or teachers or lawyers or EMTs or call center agents or electricians or delivery truck drivers or stock brokers or farmers - all of us have developed skills and ways of looking at the world and dealing with people unique to our professions that will be invaluable to helping the Kingdom of God roll forth. The way that we love and serve our neighbors and share the gospel is going to look and be different if we are a nurse or an HR representative or a librarian or a CEO. None of our life experiences are wasted. The lessons we learn getting screamed at by angry customers, or scraping gunk off the floor, or pulling apart two teenagers beating the hell out of each other, or having to layoff six hundred employees, or feeding an air tube down someone’s trachea, or tracking down the bug that caused a website to crash - all of these give us experience and for not just our good but the good of all of God’s children. Following God does not mean abandoning who we are or all of the experience we’ve gained, but rather applying that experience to inviting others to come unto Christ. A fisher of fish can sit all day waiting for that catch, and a fisher of men and women can wait patiently for their friend to finally accept the invitation to come to church. A baker of bread knows exactly when to pull a batch out of the oven, and a baker of men and women knows exactly when someone is ready to hear about the gospel. A computer programmer of computers knows the exact right line of code to fix a problem, and a computer programmer of men and women knows the exact right line to say to a friend when they desperately need some wisdom and guidance. God needs each of us not in spite of our past experiences but exactly because of our past experiences.
