889 Here Comes Jesus ... Again

God’s pursuit of us is personal. He thinks of you individually, apart from the crowd, separate from the masses, and zeros in his attention on you. Not because you’re the problem one, the difficult one, or the continually screwed up one, but because you are his beloved one. Your problems do not create a problem for God. Your difficulties do not make it difficult for God to love you. The fact that you continually screw up only allows God to continually show up in your life in such a personal and powerful way. Here you are again … back to needing God. Back to struggling with things you thought you would be well past by now. You’re wanting to hide. You’re feeling the shame of another failed attempt and another shortcoming. That shame makes you shrink back and dismiss yourself from what God has for you here. But there are two intertwined stories in the Bible that tell me you should run straight toward Jesus again and again and again, as he shows up in the same ways for you over and over. In Luke 5: 1-11 we read about Jesus walking up to two fishermen who had been fishing all night, but had caught nothing. Jesus asks to use their boat to stand in and teach the crowd. Afterwards, he tells the fishermen ““Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” Simon, who is also called Peter, answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” They caught so many fish the nets began to break. Then Jesus said, leave all of this here and come with me and I’ll make you so much more. For 3 years Peter followed Jesus. During that time he was part of healings, miraculous feedings, walking on water, but it all ended with Peter denying he even knew Jesus right before he went to the cross. What a failure. What an utter mistake. After all Jesus had shown Peter, after all he had done with him and for him, Peter failed Jesus. Afterwards, he returned to his boat, the boat he had left to follow Jesus 3 years before, and he began fishing again. Have you ever made tremendous progress, felt dang good about where you’re going in life, been in BFF status with Jesus, then fail miserably? Have you ever fallen off the wagon so hard, you’re laying in the ditch eating dust for months. Heck, maybe you’ve been eating dust for years. Thinking about where you once were and all God had done to help you make the progress you so easily wasted, makes you ashamed. Oh, I’m pretty sure we’ve all felt that way. If we’ve lived long enough, we’ve known the high of Jesus rescuing us, then the associated guilt when we waste the rescue and end up right back where we were … or worse. Peter had this amazing encounter with Jesus that began with a miraculous catch of fish. Jesus had changed every aspect of his life, every aspect except for Peter’s free will that continually got him in trouble. Peter’s impulsive mouth and distracted bad decisions still remained. Jesus didn’t change that. Don’t you wish Jesus would change the things about you that get you in trouble? Don’t you wish he would just come in and give you rock solid willpower? Don’t you wish he would swoop in and give you a mind that never wanders off into worry? Don’t you wish he would give you that sweet sweet tender voice that never lost her crap and yelled like a wild banshee? You’ve been saved, you’ve been forgiven, you’ve been redeemed, but there are some things about you that remain and they’re a real struggle. Just like Peter. What is Jesus’ response to our failure? How does he react to us screwing this thing up with the same darn behavior we swore we would never return to again? Well, how does Jesus respond to Peter’s repeated failure?