Prepare for Launch

“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”

Vincent van Gogh

 “⁴ Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. ⁵ And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. ⁶ And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake.”

Luke 5:4-6

The opening of Star Trek always started with the phrase “to boldly go where no one has gone before.” It sounds exciting, exhilarating even until…the ship pushes free from the dock and heads out into the unknown. Suddenly, everything within us grabs hold of the known for dear life and refuses to budge.

“You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” 

William Faulkner

The Deep End

I remember working my way slowly to the deep end of a swimming pool, hanging onto the edge with a grip that defied the strength of my puny arms. I was a weak swimmer, and I was well aware of it, never more so than in the deep end of the pool. So, I never swam from the shallow end to the deep end for fear I wouldn’t reach the end of the pool. Instead I crab walked to the deep end and pushed off with my legs, which were stronger than my arms, giving me a jump start.

As I grew stronger and braver, I began to push off from the shallow end. Those times I made a complete lap without grabbing for the edge or touching down to the bottom I felt like I could do anything. I was never braver or more confident than at those moments. God is calling us to launch out into the deep, the unknown, but we can have confidence because God goes before us, making a way.

“Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”

Isaiah 43:19

A New Way

God has prepared a great catch for us, just like the disciples in Luke 5, but we have to be willing to follow His lead and not our own. We have to do things His way and not our own. The disciples had been working hard all night and gotten nothing, but when they followed Jesus’ instructions, they got more than they could ever imagine, almost more than they were prepared to receive.

In Wednesday night Bible study, the teacher suggested that if we wanted to continue to see revival in our church, our community, our nation, and even our world, we might need to try new ways of doing things. God is always doing a new thing, but if we want to take in the catch, we are going to have to launch off from the dock. We are going to have to let go of the edge and swim toward the new horizon.

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before.”

Philippians 3:13

God is the Creator. He created heaven and earth, beasts of the field and fowls of the air, and he created man and woman. He is always at work doing a new thing. Either we can sit on the dock and watch from a distance, or we can get in the water, let go of the edge and push off. We will never know what we can do until we try. We will never know what God will do until we follow His lead. What do you say? Shall we prepare for launch into the next great adventure?