As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.
In high school you’re taught to “reach for the stars”. At your graduation the speaker likely referenced some form of Dr. Suess’ inspiring and prophetic work “Oh the Places You’ll Go!” Perhaps you left that graduation feeling excited about the life that you’ve chosen to live. You knew your university, your major, your career path. Or, maybe you’re like the many others who had a faint idea and took a few steps, one after the other. Either way, you discover what’s next through a series of decisions geared toward a magical future filled with work. Achieving degrees, experience, and resumé crafting skills you anxiously pursue the first corporation, studio, firm, school, factory that will give you the chance to find the fulfillment everyone talks about.
Waking up early on that first day, you present yourself early and ready to get on with the calling of your life. Well, not your true calling, this is just a step in the process. While hopefully fulfilling, you expect to pay your dues in this entry position. You’ve walked through the doorway, but you haven’t arrived. In a few years, you’ll get promoted and that, that’s when you’ll have arrived at the destination of calling. Well, you’ll still wait to work on the projects, or with the clients, or in the industry, that you’ve really set yourself up to impact. Then, of course, you’ll have to wait for the awards, accolades, and banquets. But don’t worry, you’ve found meaning in it all. You’ve reached for the stars. You’ve chased your dreams. Your career has called you and you are satisfied!
Except it doesn’t and you aren’t.
In Los Angeles, we have the privilege of being dreamers and achievers. The kinds of people who passionately pursue their occupational dreams and many of them achieve them. Both those who achieve and those who don’t are equally unsatisfied. Achievement didn’t mean what we are told it would mean. It doesn’t feel how we thought it would feel. It’s work. Often regarded as important exciting purposes: sending rockets to Mars, winning Oscars, Super Bowl ads, consulting corporations, courtroom legal defenses, teaching children to read, and rubbing shoulders with rich and famous, it is still, in the end work.
One of the emptiest moments of my life was opening the first edition of my newly published book. A major publisher had purchased. It received good reviews from prominent people and respected peers. Though not a bestseller, it was widely read, or at least purchased. As I opened the box, I found a congratulatory note from someone at the publishing house. I thought I would feel significant or satisfied when I wrote a book, but I didn’t. Then, I thought I would feel it when I signed a book contract. Then, I thought I would have it when people read it, when it was acclaimed, or when it was added to my bio. Lastly, I thought surely, when I held my own copy in my hand, I will know peace.
Accomplishing that occupational dream didn’t do what I thought it would do inside me. I continued to chase it until, exhausted, defeated, and discouraged, I realized the book didn’t change the world and couldn’t.
Was my dream too big, I thought? No, my calling was too small. I was too small.
“A person is the size of their dreams.” Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa
Our occupations and aspirations can’t produce in us what we hope. What we’re hoping to receive from clients, bosses, and industries, they can’t give. Choosing a job or profession, is easy. Discovering a purpose—big dream—that fits into our entire selves? That’s hard.
The passions of our professions don’t account for our personalities, longings, relationships, families, health, and all the aspects of human life. “Casting a net” will never be enough.
And yet, through the coercive culture around us, we accept our work as the size of our lives. But Jesus doesn’t.
Jesus’ first stop on the trail of kingdom-come was the shore and ships. Walking along the sea of Galilee, he saw two sets of middle-aged brothers. He saw who they were and what they were doing and called them into a promise that fulfills the purpose of their existence, and ours: Follow me.
Humanity was made for more than casting nets. We were made to live inside hope. We were made to follow. We were made to be transformed.
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