Goals, Expertise, and Huge Hauls of Fish

Hey, everybody, I’m your host, Wanda Thibodeaux, and you’re listening to Faithful on the Clock, the podcast where every chocolate chip goes into the cookie to get your faith and work aligned. In today’s show, we’re using the story of how the disciples caught a massive amount of fish not once, but twice, to reorient the way you think about expertise and setting goals. Let’s dive in, swim out from shore a little, and get into the boat with Jesus’ disciples.

So, today’s episode focuses on two parallel fishing stories we find in scripture. And the first story, I’ll use the account in Luke 5. And Jesus is by the Lake of Gennesaret, and what happens is, all of the people, they start crowding around Him. And He sees a pair of boats, and the fishermen in the boats, they’re washing their nets. Now, who were these fishermen? They were Simon Peter, along with James and John. And we know that Simon, you know, he’s a pretty decent fisherman. Why do we know that? Because Verse 3 tells us that he owns one of the boats. And at that time, if you owned your own boat, you’re financially doing all right. But I want you to understand, Simon is not an amateur at this, OK? But at any rate, Jesus gets into Simon’s boat, and they go out a little way from the shore, and Jesus teaches the people from the boat. Now, after that, Jesus tells Simon to go out into deeper water and let down his nets. So, remember, Simon’s really good at his job. He knows those waters. And he says to Jesus, you know, “We’ve already been at this all night long. We didn’t catch anything.” And that’s, you know, if you’re a fisherman, even as an expert fisherman like Peter, that’s not all that unusual. Sometimes, the fish, they just don’t cooperate. Some fishing trips are like that. But remember, they’ve been listening to Jesus on this boat. And whatever Jesus said, it made them pay attention. Because then, listen to what Simon Peter says. He calls Jesus “master” and says, “Because you say so, I will let down the nets.” So, even with all of this expertise Simon Peter had, it clicked upstairs for him that this guy in the boat was the boss. There was something about Jesus that made Simon Peter have faith to do what Jesus asked him to do. And so they let down the nets, and they catch so many fish that they fill not just Simon’s boat with fish, but the partner boat, too. And the boats were so heavy they were ready to sink. And this miracle makes Simon Peter understand who Jesus is, and he calls Jesus Lord and tells Jesus to get away from him because he’s a sinner. But Jesus reassures him and tells him that from now on, he’s gonna fish for people. And they pull the boats up to shore, and the disciples leave everything to follow him.

So, the lesson I want you to take away from this first catch of fish is, we can work super, super hard. We can have the things that, you know, to other people, say we know what we’re doing. And we can set goals based on the expertise. You know, James and John, Verse 10 tells us they were Simon Peter’s partners. So, maybe Simon Peter had big goals of owning a lot of boats and, you know, having a bigger, more commercial operation going on. I don’t know. But then in a matter of just a few hours, someone walked in and upended everything Simon Peter and the sons of Zebedee had been planning. Everything they were an expert in, now they had someone else in their boat who was proving they weren’t such big experts after all. Now, they could have been super irritated, right? Like, they could have been like, who does this Jesus guy think He is, coming into our boat and showing us all up like this? But they didn’t. They allowed Jesus to reset their plans and goals based on the expertise He knew was in them but that they hadn’t even touched yet. Right? Like, Jesus knew they could do the job, or He wouldn’t have gotten in their boat. But they didn’t know that yet. Simon Peter, he did not know he was going to become the rock of Jesus’ entire church. And so I want you to understand that the expertise you build for yourself, you can be really, really good at something. But if God wants you to do something, you have to trust that He’s equipped you. He’s given you the expertise to build for Him. You just have to go out and use it. Sometimes, you have to let go of the expertise you think you have so that God can show you the job you’re meant for and let you excel at it. You have to let go of all those worldly goals and know that His plans are better than any strategies you could come up with on your own. And I’m sure there was a part of Simon Peter that was like, “This doesn’t make any sense. Am I really gonna drop everything I’ve invested and stop everything I thought I wanted to do? This is nuts! It’s crazy!” But he also knew what he’d seen. And he knew that if his expertise had literally come up empty and Jesus’ expertise hadn’t, putting Jesus at the helm of His life did make sense.

Now, I wanna take you to the second fish story, which you’ll find in John 21. And this all takes place after Jesus has been crucified and risen from the dead. And Jesus is starting to appear to the people who knew Him, OK. So, that’s the context. And as the story starts, we find a handful of the disciples by the Sea of Galilee. We’ve got two disciples that aren’t named, but then we’ve also got Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, and the sons of Zebedee (or, James and John). And Simon Peter says to the other guys, you know, “I’m gonna go fish.”

Now, before I go on, I want to just point something out really quick about that. Keep in mind what’s just happened, right? Jesus’ ministry has been completely upended. It’s been shattered. The disciples don’t really know where to go or what to do. And it’s just a really confusing time. And so in all of this chaos, Simon Peter, why does he go fish? Well, there’s probably some practicality to it. The disciples are gonna need to eat. But I think there’s more to it. I could be totally off base here, but I think it’s just because that’s what he knows. That’s his old area of expertise. That’s the activity he’s gonna feel the most comfortable in and get some comfort from. And I don’t know about you, but there sure have been times in my life where I’ve kind of defaulted to the work I know how to do. You ever do that? And I point that out because I think that’s what holds a lot of us back. Maybe life gets crazy. Maybe you were trying to apply for something different and it seems like nobody’s hiring. Maybe you’re trying to start a business and your whole supply chain plan just falls apart, and you set it aside for a while and go back to work because you don’t see how it’s gonna be viable. Or maybe, I don’t know, maybe your partner just comes home and they’re upset, and you start making the chicken your mom taught you to make because that’s the only thing in that moment that makes much sense. And I think Simon Peter’s having one of those moments here. But if you remember what Simon Peter goes on to do for the church, you know he’s not gonna lean on catching regular old fish for very long, right? He leaves everything he was an expert in behind and leads in a completely different way. And I want to use that to encourage you, because sometimes we’ve got to step into new roles, and I don’t want you to get scared and default backward, OK? That might feel comfortable, but you can’t stay there, because that’s not where God wants you to be.

But all that said, the other guys with Peter are like, “Cool, we’ll come along.” And they fish all night long. But Jesus appears on the shore. And He asks the disciples if they’ve caught anything. And of course, they say no. And at that point, they don’t know it’s Jesus there on the shore. But then Jesus tells them, basically, “Toss your net on the right side of the boat. You’ll get your fish.” And so they do that, and just like when Jesus first had called the disciples, they catch so many fish they can’t handle it all. They can’t even haul the net in. And I fully believe Jesus does this on purpose. It’s His way of jogging their memory to when He first called them, of getting them to understand that there’s only one possibility for Who the guy standing on the shore might be. And in fact, Verse 11 is very specific. It tells us there’s 153 fish in the net, and according to some scholars, 153 is significant because in Hebrew, every letter has a number attached to it. And 153 is the total for…wait for it…“I am God.” And on top of that, Verse 7 then tells us that the disciple Jesus loved, which a lot of scholars believe is John, finally recognizes who Jesus is. And John says, “It’s the Lord!” and they rush to get the boat to shore. And because the boat was actually just a little ways off, Simon Peter, he even jumps in the water and tries to swim back to Jesus. And if you think of that in the context of the storm Peter had been through with Jesus, which is in Matthew 14, you know, in that storm, Peter sees Jesus walking on the water. And He goes out to Him, but He doesn’t go out until Jesus tells Him to come. And this time, Peter doesn’t even wait. He just goes right toward Jesus. And I think that tells us that Simon Peter has learned something. His faith has gotten bigger.

Now, here’s something that’s absolutely beautiful. This was not like Jesus just happens to be on the Sea of Galilee. In Verse 9, we read, “When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.” And so Jesus has come to the shore and gotten ready in advance to have a meal with His disciples. He knew they were coming. And then He invites them to come have breakfast. And so not only does this encounter confirm that this is really Jesus, it confirms to them the kind of Messiah He is. This is someone who’s gonna provide for them, and not just provide, but give them more than enough. And there’s a parallel here to the kingdom of God, because just like the disciples had way more fish than they could handle, what we’ve got waiting for us on God’s table is more than we ever could imagine. And so even in this, I think Jesus is telling His disciples not to worry. I think He’s reminding them not only of how He first called them, but what they’ve got coming.

Now, why do I point this out? Because so often, what do we do? We lean on our own expertise and provision, right? We think that the only way we’re going to get what we need is to come up with a magic five-year plan and learn like crazy until the day we die. But that’s not how God sets it up. Remember, in Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus tells the disciples essentially, don’t worry about getting all the stuff you need. God’s gonna handle all that. But the start of Verse 25, it’s so broad. The first thing Jesus says is, don’t worry about your life. This isn’t just a lesson in getting bread and clothes, OK? It’s a lesson, too, in saying, don’t worry so much about getting all the expertise, in achieving all these goals that, in the end, aren’t even gonna matter. Don’t worry so much about the certification you think is going to get you the better job. Don’t worry so much about landing the client you think is your meal ticket to seven figures. Because God’s already made the plan for you. He’s already sitting on the shore waiting for you, and He’s already ensured you have what you need to do the job you’re made for. And just like He did for Jonah by sending the whale, He’s gonna make sure you get where you need to be. Now, none of this means you can’t plan or go after something prestigious, OK? That’s not what I’m saying. All it means is, if fear is what’s driving you, that’s a problem. If you’re allowing worry to push you to get the expertise, rather than a desire to serve God with the passions He’s put inside of you, that’s a problem. Because if that’s what’s happening, it means you’ve got some work to do on how much you trust Him.

So, to just kind of put a bow on all of this, we can seek expertise and set goals all we want. But when all is said and done, at the end of the day, we have to be able to say that God will always have more understanding and skill than we do. And we have to grasp that because it is in His nature to give us more than enough, we must be willing to set aside all of the rank and investment we’ve gained if He calls us. We have to trust that, even if we’ve got something that’s going well or makes us feel competent, He knows the expertise we haven’t even tapped yet that’s going to matter way more.

So, let’s close out the show with a prayer. If you would, just pray with me.

Lord, thank You that You’re the kind of God Whose expertise gets us more than enough. Thank you that your provision can remind us even in chaos who You are, and that we don’t have to worry about anything beyond seeking You. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

That is, as they say in a Hollywood production, a wrap. If you want to let me know what fish Jesus has been helping you catch, send me an email at wandathibodeaux@faithfulontheclock. Next episode, I’ll be chatting with you about how to avoid what I call cat-poster Christianity as you study the Bible for guidance in your career or business. Until then, everybody, be blessed.