Martin St. Louis
Chris Kunitz
Dan Boyle
David Clarkson
Dan Girardi
What do all these players have in common??? Go on, take some time to think about it. We will wait....
If you guessed that all of these players are all undrafted free agents you would be CORRECT. So, where are we going with this rambling point. Well, let's take a look at Luke 5:8-11 to get us going.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
In this passage, Peter and his brother Andrew have just miraculously caught loads of fish after Jesus tells them to go out and try one more time. It is their first encounter with Jesus and it leaves them amazed. Although this is a very cool story, what we want to focus in on in this story (and how it relates to our initial trivia question) is what type of men these first disciples were. They were not the most learned men in their day. They were not the most respected. They were simply regular guys with regular jobs living life one day at a time trying to make ends meet.
Now, we would venture to say that most of the people reading this blog post fall into this category. We don't feel particularly special or out of the ordinary. We are kind of like the thousands of undrafted hockey players out there. Just regular people trying to make a difference in the places where we find ourselves. But, here is where the story gets really cool. Jesus doesn't just look upon these guys as a bunch of regular guys. Jesus calls them to be on his team. Just like those handful of NHL un-drafted free agents who make it to the NHL, these small town fishermen find themselves....in an instant.....playing on an all star team of eternal proportions. Now, your probably saying, "Great! what does any of this have to do with me??" Well, we would argue it has everything to do with you and everybody else. Christ died so that ALL, not just some or the elite, but ALL could join God's team. Christ died for us so that even though we feel like we are un-drafted and not cut out to play on the big team, the doors are wide open for us waiting for us to join the team. We are pretty sure that we will probably have our own stall and our equipment won't smell either :-) (not positive, but pretty sure) This is very very awesome.
So, when you may be feeling down because you just don't think you can cut it in your work, on your team, in a new situation, among your siblings, or wherever else remember that God made a way for you to be a part of the best team ever. And if a bunch of clueless fishermen can be used by God through Jesus to build Christianity, God can use you in ways that you might not think possible. Trust you are indeed part of God's glorious team and that you can play on His team better than you ever thought possible!
Reflect
Have you ever put your Trust in Jesus as the only way onto God's team?
In what ways have you been making excuses and not letting God use you on His team?
