Christ Knows the Best Way to Do What You Are Best At

(Scriptural meditation begins at 4:49.)

Simon Peter was a professional fisherman. And Jesus keeps teaching him, again and again, that he, Jesus, has greater mastery over fishing. And over everything else. After fruitless nights of fishing, Jesus tells Peter where to cast his nets, for an astounding catch. Jesus walks on water, calms sea storms.

 It’s easy to pray in desperation when we feel hard-pressed and incompetent, and, often,

Christ rescues us, adds a 1 before our zeroes.

However, it’s equally important to turn over our strengths to him, so he can add zeroes after our 1. And the more we can surrender our strengths to his management, the more he blesses them.

My memoir: Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India UK USA

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Transcript

Then Jesus got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping.  The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”

He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.

The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!” Matthew 8: 23-27. 

So Jesus, a charismatic carpenter, keeps teaching Peter, a fisherman,

a man of the sea, the same lesson, again and again. That he, Jesus,

knew the absolute best way to do everything. Including--fishing.

When Peter had laboured all night and caught nothing, Jesus

tells him to cast his nets on the right side and they were 

unable to haul in the bountiful catch. Jesus walked on the

waters of a lake, and calmed sea-storms which raged while

he slept in the boat. He showed off his mastery over their

profession, showing that the very cleverest thing they could do,

always, was to check in with him for his guidance and direction.

When we feel hard-pressed and incompetent, we desperately ask Jesus

for help. And he can graciously add a one before our zeroes.

However, when we feel competent, educated, experienced, or gifted, 

it’s even more crucial to not rely on these limited gifts, but to ask Jesus

to take the wheel, to show us the best way to do things and to bless

them. Then he can add zeroes after our one talent, transforming it

into something with exponential blessing for us and for the world.

Avoid the folly of doing anything without checking in

with Jesus. Keep asking: “Jesus, do I need to be doing this

at all?” And: “Please, show me the best way to do it.”

In the most successful thing I’ve ever done, co-founding

a small business which has wholly supported our family

for the last thirteen years, I’ve had to rely on God’s guidance 

because I had lacked the training, education, skills, or temperament

for it. And God added a 1 before my zeroes, and blessed it.

Conversely, I have been relatively unsuccessful in the one thing

I had the education, training, some talent and a deep love for--

that is, writing--because I have done it in my own strength, often without

even thinking of asking God for guidance or direction. And without

surrender. But since God is still writing the story of my life, it’s not too

late to train myself to ask God for guidance, and blessing on my writing.

God gives us gifts of good genes, education, opportunity or resources. 

But everything we have is God’s, and things can change in a moment.

So the safest thing we can do is to surrender everything we have to God, and

to continually ask him how to do things his way, so He can supernaturally,

exponentially touch, bless and multiply the work of our hands.