Mark 1:19 - Go Fish or "Go Fund Me"?

The Verse

Mark 1:19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets.


My Paraphrase

Going just a little further, Jesus saw James and John working on their nets.


My Thoughts

Again, we see Jesus quietly observing men before calling them. Again, this is a moment before the moment. In this verse, we catch James and John--two of the most influential and beloved disciples--in this "pre-" state. In this verse, they were just James and John, sons of Zebedee. In the next verse, they would become "Sons of Thunder" (Mark 3:17). I never bothered to think about these "moments before moments" before I started studying this book verse by verse. It's amazing what jumps out when you slow your study down! What a precious moment in time to have the Creator of all things physically observing His creation, and yet. . .being in mortal form, having the willing suspense of "What will happen next?" and "These two men will become my best friends, and they don't even know it yet." Have you ever had that moment when you see a person across the room for the first time and think, "I am pretty sure he/she and I would get along. . ."? It's a strange human anomaly. Some people call it serendipity. I call it Providence. Anyways. . .that's what is happening here.

But what REALLY stands out to me in this verse is this point: The men are working. How many people (Christians notwithstanding) do you know that are just sitting around waiting for jobs and purposes to drop into their laps? In fact, with the advent of social media apps like "Go Fund Me" a trend has formed not just to ask for supplemental mission support or temporary help in a moment of destitution, but rather to ask for entire support in lieu of working at all! What is it that tells us that we don't need to be proactive about our own futures, but yet entitles us to foist that responsibility onto other people? I think a lot of times we say, "My future is in God's hands," so much so that we act like we are completely powerless. This isn't true. The Bible plainly tells us that we have been given His power (II Timothy 1:7) and that a man who doesn't want to work, shouldn't eat (II Thessalonians 3:10). 

God calls people who are diligent. Think about it. If you are just waiting around for an opportunity to drop into your life and not actively working, why would God bother to call you? An earthly boss doesn't give a promotion unless a worker has done good work. Why would God be any different? God doesn't promote lazinss. Ever. Think of the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30). The only ones who are rewarded in that story are the ones who worked hard to make good investments. It's not God's job to fix all our problems. That would actually be spiritual rape, if you think about it. God doesn't force Himself onto people--even during times of pain and hardship. It is up to us to hear God's voice above the cacophony of life.  It's God's job to make us stronger, and that can only happen if we are willingly and actively seeking His plan in those hard times. 

True, in this particular story, James and John aren't exactly suffering. They are just doing their daily routine jobs, that is, only if the word "preparing" means "getting ready." However, most translations translate the word as "mending" or "repairing."  If that is the case, then we do in fact, see a problem here. Maybe they were suffering a little, after all. Apparently, these once-working nets had ripped. If that is the case, then we do see them struggling in life. If that is the case, this adds to the point that they were extremely hard workers. Not everything was perfect in a fisherman's life. Sometimes, one even had to forgo time spent fishing with preparation and mending. If they hadn't spent this time working on the nets and getting them to their optimal state, the entire time spent fishing would have been wasted.  These were not men who went to work unprepared.

Jesus observes them as they work to make their own lives better, and knows that the life He was about to call them toward would only make their lives seemingly harder: More responsibility, more time, more heartache, etc.. However, He could see by their prudence and industry that God would receive glory through these diligent men. These men who would take the time to work on damaged nets, would eventually take the time to work on people with damaged souls. It would be a hard life, but it would be a life of legacy and ultimately a life of fulfilling God's plan.

But it wouldn't have happened if they hadn't already been working.  

 I think this means that we--instead of sitting around waiting for God to call us--need to be diligent and hard-working, performing tasks already set before us--as lackluster and mundane as they may appear.  Throughout the gospels, the disciples continue to fish, so we can't automatically think that God will call us to be lazy or tell us to quit our regular jobs for some "higher calling." The jobs we are already in are either preparing us for our "higher callings" or are already our "higher callings"! Actually, this point is observable throughout the entire Bible. Ruth was gathering food when she was noticed. Samuel was living and working in the temple when he was called. David was tending sheep. Even Paul, who was a persecutor and murderer of Christians, was working when he was called! I think there is an important lesson to learn here! Diligence is important to God! 

Whatever job you are currently working, you are in the exact right place. And. . .if you aren't working. . .GET A JOB!

Pale Blue Eye

I've been watching some videos on the earth, universe, and cosmos.

One of these videos called "The Privileged Earth," put together from current scientific research, shows further evidence that the earth is not just the Sagan-esque "Pale Blue Dot" that the 1970s wished to teach us. Without going into much explanation, suffice to say the argument put forth is that...

"The most habitable places in the universe also offer the best opportunity for scientific discovery. I believe this implies purpose." ~ Astrobiologist Guillermo Gonzalez

In other words (although, he said it very clearly the first time), our universe is not only finely tuned to support life, our very position in the galaxy and the universe is also finely tuned to support this place for life. Not only that, but we are in a rare and intensely unique position for observation of the universe.

For instance, if we were not positioned perfectly between two arms of the Milky Way, but instead were nestled into one or the other, there would be too much cosmic dust and star clutter around us for our distinguishing other galaxies from our own. Also, our galaxy is unique in that it is very flat so as not to impede our view of the rest of the universe. Also, the earth's atmosphere is uniquely clear (as opposed to other atmospheric planets) so that we are able to observe the universe clearly. Also, the size of the moon and the sun during a solar eclipse are almost perfectly the same to our eyes, which allows us a privilege of observing the sun's atmosphere which helps us to understand the makeup of the sun and other stars. Also....other things...

I hadn't thought about all that before.

Something else:

One of the special features on this particular DVD is titled "Journey to the edge of the universe," and takes you on a CGI journey from earth to the outer edge of the known universe. Being a nerd, I love seeing all those stars and supernovas zooming past...

Then something hit me.

In the main portion of the video, the scientists came to a conclusion that if we are positioned in such a great place, not only for Darwinian acts such as procreation and base survival, but also in a position for observation for curiosity's sake--a completely unnecessary skill for survival--then that fact implies that perhaps we are supposed to reach out from our unique life-sustaining planet, study the beautifully simple laws of the complex universe, study the outer regions of the universe, and perhaps further realize our purpose for being in this specific position.

Consider this: If we (facing Earth) traveled at the speed of light toward Alpha Centauri, we would hit Mars in four minutes. If we arrived (still facing Earth) at Alpha Centauri, it would take us five years. Further travel would then take us 100 light years just to get to the point of seeing the patterns of light and dust from the two arms of the Milky Way converge. That's as far as we would get in 100 years. And that's without traveling back to the earth to share our findings, you realize.

We haven't yet built any spaceship capable of traveling at the speed of light, let alone sustaining our lives within it traveling that fast. We came to these light year conclusions based on mathematical systems that we figured out and super telescopic cameras we put in space from the safe confines of our little planet.

This is what hit me: we are the only known species of beings that can observe the universe from our little pale blue dot in the sky. Our planet is very like an eye. We were made to observe outwardly, yet....we are incapable (at least for the time being...until we learn to travel faster than the speed of light) of physically traveling outside our very galaxy.

It seems, therefore, that Something wants us to look outside ourselves, yet--at least for the time being--wants us to remain on this lovely finely tuned, uniquely beautiful planet.

Perhaps our best work is supposed to be done within.