Urge

By Pastor Paul Gauche

By Today’s Word: “Urge” as in… are you sensing the urge to consider something completely new?

Henry Ford is credited with saying, “When you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” He might as well have been quoting Jesus. Although Jesus would have said, “If you want something you’ve never had, you’ve got to do something you’ve never done.”

After Jesus’ death, the disciples returned to what they’d always done. They defaulted to their old ways of life, old habits, rhythms, and patterns. They defaulted to what was familiar, known, measurable, and safe.

“I’m going fishing,” Peter said, and you can almost hear the resignation in his voice.

“We’ll go with you.” the others respond with equal apathy.

They fish all night and get skunked. The next morning Jesus stands on the beach asking them if they’ve gotten anything. “Nope, nothing…” they reply. They’re describing their current reality. But Jesus inserts a “calling” into their current reality and shakes up everything. It’s like a stone is rolled away from the entrances of their new lives.

“Then throw your nets on the other side of the boat and you’ll find some.”

What? The other side? That’s 6, maybe 10 feet away, right? What possible difference would that make? Let’s remember, “When you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”

The difference between our current reality and our calling is where resurrection happens. Our current reality is often the place where we are stuck in what’s familiar, known, measurable, and safe. But Jesus enters that resurrected space and urges us to try something completely new. Resurrection invites us into the unknown, unfamiliar, and immeasurable. When we do this, we’re often surprised at the abundance of experience that is unfolding all around us.

So where are you right now? Are you satisfied with what’s familiar, known, measurable, and safe? Or are you sensing the urge to look in a new direction, or perhaps to even jump in and see how you swim? “If you want something you’ve never had, you’ve got to do something you’ve never done.”

#100days50words

Paul Gauche is the Pastor of Life Transitions at Prince of Peace. His posts are part of his #100days50words project, where be blogs about a different word each day. You can follow his project on Instagram (@pgauche), or on his blog, Thriving Rhythms.