Children, do you have any food? John 21:5

After Jesus' resurrection, after seeing the risen Christ, a group of the disciples headed back to Galilee. Unsure what else to do, they went with the familiar, fishing. After a night's labor, their nets were empty. To make things worse, the question from the man on shore drew attention to their failure.

Empty Nets – Why did they fail and why does it matter?
1. You can't go back again – These guys were chosen, set apart by Jesus Christ for a specific kingdom work. Once they accepted that call to be 'fishers of men', their lives would never be the same. Of course, this didn't mean they'd never catch another fish again, but that way of life was history.

2. You can't operate by your own agenda anymore – Jesus's mission would come first. He set the priorities, and they were to follow them.

3. Your resources are limited at best – Depending on your own skill, your own experience or judgment will ultimately fail.

Jesus' question, kind of a 'how's that fishing thing working for you?' gave His disciples a chance to think. Do you want to feel that frustration? Do you want to labor at something-even if it's worthwhile- only to have nothing to show for it?

Bursting Nets – Why did they succeed and why does it matter?
Jesus told them to cast on the other side of the boat and they couldn't haul the fish in, there were so many. The results were always in His hands, independent of their efforts.

Jesus operates under a new set of rules, remember?
Jesus did a miracle similar to this after He called the disciples. That time, He proved His omniscience and His divinity. This time, He reminded them they were much more than fishermen. They were wasting their call goofing around with fish. If Jesus could fill their nets, how much more could He do through them?

What about your net?
What has Jesus called you to? Are you working at it? Or are you working at something close, but a little more familiar, a little more comfortable? What so you have to show for it?

It was such a simple thing, and I’d done it dozens of times before… Schedule a blog post. Once it posts, a tweet is generated with a link to the post. Straightforward, uncomplicated… At least in theory.  Yesterday, the post missed its schedule. The tweet however, generated anyway with a link to a post that didn’t exist. And a minute later, another tweet was generated. And again a minute later. And again… for forty-seven minutes. (Something like that… I couldn’t count the  tweets. Frankly didn’t want to count the tweets.)

It was such a simple thing, and I’d done it dozens of times before… Schedule a blog post. Once it posts, a tweet is generated with a link to the post. Straightforward, uncomplicated… At least in theory.  Yesterday, the post missed its schedule. The tweet however, generated anyway with a link to a post that didn’t exist. And a minute later, another tweet was generated. And again a minute later. And again… for forty-seven minutes. (Something like that… I couldn’t count the  tweets. Frankly I didn’t want to count the tweets.)

I disabled the tweets. They didn’t stop. I disabled the WordPress plug-in. The tweets didn’t stop. Finally, I deleted the post. They stopped. How embarrassing!

That was a tough lesson for this perfectionist. I have a pathological aversion to looking stupid. A tweet- the same tweet- every minute for the better part of an hour certainly qualifies as stupid. So in the face of such a techie disaster, I could choose to crawl in a virtual hole, disable my Twitter account and not post for a while… like months. Then come back under an assumed name. I gave that more than a few moments consideration.  A much more reasonable reaction is to chalk it up as a learning experience, and move on. And here we are.

So near the close of the Authenticity Challenge, how does this apply to my faith? If I am putting forth any effort at all, at some point, I will fail, perhaps spectacularly. When that happens… (And that’s not saying it hasn’t already happened. Because it has.) I need to absorb the lesson and get back to work. I can never outfail God’s grace.

Tomorrow is the last post in this series… Be sure a check back for some parting thoughts. Tuesday’s post will be another study tip.