​The Awesome Presence and Call of God - Pastor David Tsai

Luke 5:4-11
There was a college class that I’d attempted to take twice, and both times, I realized that it was not going well. I tried to jump off the ship. Some people find the reality of a very present God during the sermon exposition on Sunday. Others find their burning bush, prison cell, the palace of Shushan, or Damascus road in the rest of the fullness of the Lord in all the world. Or, in chemistry.
By the third attempt, my conversation with God had struck a different tone. I was asking God for another degree (perhaps that “underwater basket weaving” major was right, and I did not discern heaven’s guidance well.) Although it was clear that I needed to head back to Young Hall and reenroll, I knew what had happened, and I was sure it would happen again.
This is a common place for humanity to circle back to: we know what will happen because we have been there before. Work is a place where the vast majority of us (especially those in blue- or new-collar work) are often caught up in the monotony of repetition. We do the status quo daily and only get noticed when something goes wrong.
Peter seemed to be in a place of monotony.  Casting again and again for little return can do that to anyone, especially when casting determines one’s livelihood (Luke 5:5). Jesus tells the disciples to head out into the sea, almost sounding matter of fact: “Let down your nets for a catch.”
In Christ’s Kingdom, the most ordinary, mundane, repeated (and often failed) attempts can bring about the most wonderful gift. That is, after all, what grace is. By attempt three of taking the course, I was deeply entrenched in the Peter-ish “worked all night” trying-to-pass mentality. During enrollment, I found that a different professor would be teaching the class. Then, the format of instruction changed. The curriculum was rearranged, and after I received a high grade on the first exam, there was a lot of clarity that I might pass this class.
Peter was in a boat, Esther in a palace, Moses by a bush and later a cleft in a rock, some boys in a furnace, Lazarus in a cave, and a Roman soldier by a Roman crucifixion. Among common and ordinary repeated events of life, like these experienced fishermen in Luke 5 who had cast and re-cast, they found the awesome wonder of a present God in the monotony of their routine everyday work.
God may call you to do the same thing that you did yesterday. Awe does not need the sensational to occur. We only need the recognition of a present Kingdom, and the God of all saying things like: “Go back into that workplace and try again.”