Toss out the net, one more time!

It's May 24th, which means I have 1.5 days left with my students. A sigh of relief? Yes. A bit of sadness. Completely. A bit of why should I try to make them be quiet, line up straight, and take notes when I have tried for so long and some of them STILLLLL don't listen? Mmhmmm.

Every teacher faces the moment (sometimes daily!) when they ask themselves, will anything really change with this kid? I have poured my heart and soul into this child and he STILL curses in my face. I have designed lesson plans that rival a trip to Disneyland, and she STILL yawns and lays her head down! I have tutored him every morning for a year now, and he STILL fails his math test.

Sigh. When it is 1.5 days away from summer, many of us wonder, do our final days with this kid really matter? Will the ones that never changed really benefit from me slaving away for a mere 36 more hours?

I was reading the Bible tonight, and read Luke 5: 1-11. The fishermen have been casting their nets out ALL night long, with no luck. No fish, not a single little minnow to show for their sweat and tears. They haven't slept, nor probably eaten, and definitely have not rested. It is now morning, and they are ready to just get out of this dismal workplace. They're washing the stinky nets, which is probably the worst part of the day, and they are probably grumbling quite a bit. All of a sudden, a curious fellow named Jesus comes on the scene. One of the fishermen, Simon, is there, exhausted and just ready to leave the boat a mess and head home. (Sound familiar, teachers?)

Jesus steps onto Simon's boat uninvited and says, wait a minute. Would you please put your boat back out in the water? I need to teach this crowd, and they are too close to me here. I imagine Simon rolled his eyes and felt like crying, but he did so. After teaching the crowd for awhile, Jesus looks at Simon and graciously thanks him. He gives him a hug, and encourages him to go home and rest. No-- wait-- he doesn't say that at all! Instead, he calmly insists that Simon get back to work and throw out his nets another time.

Simon is probably thinking, ARE YOU KIDDING ME? First, I let you use my boat after a never-ending day and night of work, and now you want me to continue fishing after I am pretty darn certain nothing is going to change. Let me go homeeee. Out loud, Simon politely says, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything." Then he probably lets out a dramatic sigh, and he adds (in what I imagine to be a barely audible mumble), "But, because you say so, I will let down the nets."

Lo and behold, in the final moment, with the help of Jesus, the nets come back so full that Simon has to have his partner's boat come up and take 1/2 the fish, and both boats begin to sink! We are talking about A BIG CHANGE. A complete turnaround of what the fishermen had seen all night long, despite their hardest efforts.

So, what is God telling us here? Teachers, rally your troops one last time, and throw out your net. With the help of Jesus, GREAT things happen in the most unlikely of times.

Can you STILL not find a job after going to one thousand, three hundred, and ninety-nine interviews? Is your husband or wife STILL not listening after all the times you've explained to them what you need? Parents, is your child STILL not cleaning up his room after all the times you have given the responsibility speech?  Is your coworker STILL being a pain in the ... after all the times you have kindly put up with it?

There is hope in Christ in the most unlikely of situations. But there is something God is saying here that I think we really must note before saying, "Ok, [positive thinking. Yes, something good will happen to me. I just have to keep throwing out my net." Simon probably thought this plenty of times. He threw out his net all night long and nothing happened. It wasn't until Jesus came onto the scene... and notice the choices Simon had before anything good happened:

Christ asked Simon if he would let him stay on his boat, and Simon said yes despite exhaustion and frustration. Christ gave Simon the choice to throw out his nets, and he chose to listen to this guy. Life is hard. Really tiring and hard and in many situations, seemingly hopeless. But with Christ, there is hope, fulfillment, and radically unexpected GOODNESS.  Listen to where you feel Him talking to you, and say yes.

So, I'm off to finish up a gift for my students. I'm going to throw out my net one more time for these kiddos, and I fully expect a harvest.