God Needs Your Humility

by David Lins  |  02/10/2019  |  (Being) Catholic Matters

In Isaiah 6 and Luke 5 we get a real strong example of the Lord being drawn to humility. In Isaiah 6, the prophet sees the Lord and is convinced he isgoing to die. This is because you couldn’t be anywhere near God with sin and live. He cries out, “Woe is me! I am lost!” His sin is then purged with a spiritual burning coal.

The Lord asks, “Whom shall I send?” Isaiah responds, “Here I am. Send me.” This calling of a sinful man is echoed Luke 6 where Jesus is trying to speak to the crowds, but there is such a throng that it is impossible. So, he sees a local fishing company headed up by a guy named Simon. He asks him to take to take Jesus just off shore so he can use the boat to create a platform of sorts. From Simon’s boat, he teaches the crowd. Simon listens intently.

As Jesus wraps up, he turns to Simon and proceeds to give the professional fisherman fishing advice. “Put out into the deep.” As someone who has many Midwestern relatives who fish, I can tell you, pro fishermen don’t like carpenters (or anyone else)telling them how to fish.

How does Simon respond? He explains that they’ve fished through the night and not caught a minnow. Then he says the magic words, “At your word, I will let down the nets.” Humility with a delicious side of obedience.

Spoiler alert: they caught so many fish that their small fleet of boats almost sunk. Suffice it to say, with this miracle, Jesus was speaking these men’s love language. Simon’s response after the catch? “Depart from me, I am a sinful man.” Jesus ended up renaming this man Peter, our first pope.

God can take care of your sin. He needs your humility.

Questions? Comments? Email David at dlins@oloj.org

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