Immediately They Left

Mark 1

As he passed alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, Simon’s brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. “Follow me,” Jesus told them, “and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. Going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat putting their nets in order. Immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
Mark 1:16-20

I finally finished up Ezekiel and decided to take a quick break in the book of Mark as we head into Holy Week. My family has been going through a lot lately, lots of heavy, emotional stuff, yet I’ve seen the LORD growing deep roots and strengthening our faith. One of the things that I have been struck by lately is how faithfulness begets faithfulness. It’s not just seeing the faithfulness of others that encourages us to become faithful, but sometimes it’s our own faithfulness that grows future faithfulness. The more we work that faithfulness muscle, the stronger it becomes and the easier it is to step out in faith. My husband and I have been talking a lot about how a simple “yes” to hosting an exchange student back in 2018 has changed our lives. We’re now hosting our third student, and are currently helping another student find a new family after the previous one was no longer a suitable living situation. I’ve done things I never imagined I would do: speaking up and advocating for the truth, pushing back about false narratives, leaning into hard conversations, and defending my faith and sharing the Gospel. I don’t think it’s that I have just gotten so much better at those things, but that the Holy Spirit has grown me, sanctified me, and emboldened me to step into these spaces. And again, it all started with a “yes”. When we give God our simple, feeble “yes” He is faithful to do the rest. I have seen it time and time and time again in my life.

So I think about these fishermen, Peter, Andrew, James, and John. I don’t think they were such learned, religious men that were equipped in a way that immediately dropping everything to say yes to following Jesus just came easy. They didn’t know exactly what the next three years would look like, nor how those three years would impact the rest of their lives; yet, I think there was something about Jesus that stirred their hearts when He called them to follow Him, and they immediately said “yes”.

It reminds me of the call of Abraham. When God told him to leave his country, everything that was familiar and comfortable, to go to a place he had never been, Abraham’s response wasn’t, “Well, let me mull it over for a couple days LORD. I really need to think about this and pray about it…talk to my wife and see what my friends say.” No, he answered “Hineni – Here I am.” The scriptures say his faith was counted to him as righteousness.

Now, I’m not trying to say we jump blindly into everything without seeking prayer and wise counsel from the word and other believers. However, I think what I often see, and what I know I am guilty of myself, is that we overthink and over-spiritualize the decisions that might cost us something, that might push us out of our comfort zone, that might call us to sacrifice something. We need a sign from God, some writing on the wall to affirm that we should do something hard. At the same time, we have no issue with saying yes to our desires, the things that are easy or fun, that add to our level of comfort and enjoyment. Those things were rarely so much as pray, “LORD, is this in Your will?”

I think we miss out on more of the true abundant life that Jesus promises by overthinking the things that are revealed in His word and will when we know it might cost us something. Jesus does not call us to a life of ease and comfort, in fact, it’s really quite the opposite. In Luke 9 He says, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it. For what does it benefit someone if he gains the whole world, and yet loses or forfeits himself?” Just a few verses down we see Him encounter three men who express a desire to follow Him:

As they were traveling on the road someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

Jesus told him, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” ⁵⁹ Then he said to another, “Follow me.”

“Lord,” he said, “first let me go bury my father.”

But he told him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.”

Another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me go and say good-bye to those at my house.”

But Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Although the expressed desire is there, we see these men making excuses, delaying their obedience. We are walking with a family right now who expressed a desire to help out with one of the exchange students who has been living with us for a couple of weeks because her host family situation got really ugly. Due to our situation with our student, and because of the school zone we are in, she technically cannot stay with us for the remainder of the year. The wife really wanted to help, but the husband had doubts, concerns, fears, just wasn’t sure if it was the right thing, and so they had to back out. I hear the heartbreak in the wife’s voice as she is deeply saddened to miss out on this opportunity to step out in faith and trust the LORD, and I am trusting and praying that God is beginning a work in their marriage to unite their hearts in a desire to live for His Kingdom. I am sure that God will provide other opportunities for them to grow their faith, and I don’t think He’s mad at them for saying no, nor do I think He is mad at any of us when we shy away from stepping out into the unknow like the disciples, like Abraham. But I do imagine that perhaps He is sad, for us. He knows that true, abundant life is out their on the court where all the action is, not on the sidelines or the stands. I think He desires to allow us to be a part of what He is doing, bringing about His Kingdom, and so often we miss it, because we are more concerned about our comfort and ease. It’s in the valleys, the hard seasons, the ones that push us, challenge us, and deepen our dependency on the LORD that I have seen the most growth and sanctification in my own life.

LORD, I pray that all believers who have trusted in You for salvation, would trust You more with our lives. Draw us in to the abundant life that You have called us to. Help us to die to ourselves and seek Your will, even if it called us to be uncomfortable. Remind us of the privilege and comfort You forsook when You left heaven to become a human and die a horrific death for our sake. May we imitate the willingness to suffer and die to ourselves for the sake of the Gospel and Your Kingdom. AMEN!