Nets

A few weeks ago, I was praying and writing in my journal. I was so frustrated...my faith seemed full of big holes, like a net. I had the faith for some things, but in another areas, I couldn't grasp anything. I felt like I was missing the big things God wanted me to understand and learn. I prayed for God to forgive my doubts, my lack of faith, and that He would strengthen me.

I was thinking about this moment for the next few days, and I had an interesting realization.

Maybe our faith is supposed to be like a net.

People who don't believe in God have a pole without a net. They can't fully comprehend His goodness, His truth, His grace. They might see the beauty and truth of Creation and experience God's general revelation to us, but they don't fully get it. They are just swinging proverbial sticks around in the air.

Then, when you first come to faith in Christ, it's like you have a net with a really wide weave. You can grasp some of the big ideas of salvation, grace, and God's love, but the details and whole history of God and His people might elude you. You can catch big fish with your net, but no butterflies.

The more you grow, learn, and read about God, the weave of your net becomes narrower. You start to understand exciting small nuggets of truth that you wouldn't have picked up on before...the butterflies.

For example, think about the first time you began to read the Bible. I don't know about you, but I didn't really understand half of what I was reading. However, I started noticing that the more I read, the more I understood. The parts of the Bible I didn't understand actually helped me understand other books. Crazy cool! This is when the adventure gets good.

I like this metaphor also because so many of the apostles were fishermen. Jesus spoke fairly often about fishing, in terms they could understand. He told them they would be "fishermen of men" in Matthew 4, and helped them catch a miraculous catch in John 21.

In Luke 5, when Jesus is calling the first disciples, He directs them to throw their nets into the deep water. Incredulous but trusting, they throw out their nets, only to catch such a great catch that their nets start to break. At this point, Peter says, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" (verse 8).

As our nets of faith grow stronger, do we realize how much we need Christ? How sinful we are?

This story also has a good reminder that I need to hear right now, maybe you too: It's when we are faithful and trust God that we are stretched and challenged. Staying in the shallow water won't help you catch a lot of fish, but it also won't stretch your nets. And although our nets might start to break, I really believe God will never let you totally tear apart.

I can't wait to see how God grows me, strengthens me, and then sets me out for a miraculous catch.