Just a Bit More...

We live in a busy society. Our day never seems to stop from the moment we wake until the time in which we finally lie down to sleep, normally MUCH later than we would hope. We live in a multi-task society in which we are expected to always be thinking about work and how we are going to accomplish the next task on our agenda. We live in a society in which if we dare to spend a few moments to reflect upon the “greater things of life” we are considered lazy. When rest does come at the end of the day, you are finally able to reflect upon the joys of life. Just then, you get a call: “Get up, go back to work, you have more to do before you can sit down!”

I wonder if that might have been the reaction of the Disciples when Jesus came to them that fateful day and said, “Put out into the deep and let your nets down.” (Luke 5.4) They must have been very frustrated since they had, like so many of us, worked all night long and needed a moment of rest. And Jesus knew their frustration when He blessed their efforts with a catch larger than they expected. Their willingness to “go just a bit more” was honored by God.

Many times, just when we think that we can’t possibly do one more thing, the Church calls out and challenges us to go just a bit more. We are asked to fast when we struggle just to put food on our table. We are asked to come to special Church services when we struggle just to get to Church on Sunday morning. We are asked to read the Bible when we struggle just to find a few moments to catch up on the important news of our world. And the Church wants us to “go just a bit more?”

The blessing of a great catch was possible only when the Disciples were willing to “go just a bit more,” and the blessing God has in mind for us are only “just a bit more” away, but we may never know those blessings.