I have still been struggling to fully give all my trust and love to Jesus but reading this passage and seeing other people do so is really inspiring. I am struck by verses 18 and 20, “Then they abandoned their nets and followed him… Then he called them. So they left their father Zebedee in the boat along with the hired men and followed him.” These 5 lines are so simple yet so powerful. The love and trust they have for Jesus to just drop and leave everything when Jesus called them is incredibly moving.
Two summers ago, I had the opportunity to volunteer as a dining hall server at a religious camp for middle schoolers for a month. There were several times when things did not go according to plan, somebody broke a bunch of plates, or someone dropped freshly washed spoons (I am guilty of this last one). But every time something went differently than we expected, everyone put their trust in God and moved forward with the day. When I dropped the spoons, I felt so embarrassed but about three people rushed over to help me and no one made a big deal out of it. It was so refreshing to be in an environment where people had full faith in God and that everything was going to be okay.
I think we need to remember to put our trust in God, but also that there is grace in struggling with it as well. This year especially, I have had many painful experiences and joyful ones too. I have been reminding myself that God is behind all of it and things really do happen for a reason. In this passage, Jesus is calling us to put our faith in him, to not focus on what we cannot control because God is in control.
