Fishing

Matthew 4:18-20 tells the story of the calling of Peter and Andrew, Jesus' first disciples. Lately, as I struggle to discern what God's plan is for my life professionally, this story has been a great comfort to me. I love the way the Message puts it.

"Walking along the beach of Lake Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers: Simon (later called Peter) and Andrew. They were fishing, throwing their nets into the lake. It was their regular work. Jesus said to them, "Come with me. I'll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I'll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass." They didn't ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed."

The NIV says that Jesus wanted to make "fishers of men" out of the disciples. I grew up hearing that this is what God wanted from us too, and for the most part I accepted the idea that Christians were called to be expert anglers.  Yet, somehow, the idea of catching people always seemed a little crude to me. Baiting the hook, casting the line, reeling them in—it all sounded way to much like the "people cages" my friend Gwen jokingly used to suggest we use to get more people to come to Wednesday night Bible study.

Over the past few weeks God has challenged me to revisit this misconception I had about discipleship. At Sunday morning worship and evening Bible study, in my daily quiet time, and even in the random book I was reading at the time, this idea of vocational "people fishing" kept coming up. As this passage was explained to me, what I began to realize was that, at its heart, my misunderstanding of Jesus' invitation to become a fisher of  people revolved around the TYPE of fishing going on in this passage. You see the disciples weren't using poles and bait, they were using nets. That changes things.

Peter and Andrew weren't sitting safely on the shore, occasionally tossing a lure into the water, they were out in the boat hulling up great catches of numerous kinds of fish. This image is a great metaphor for the Christian life. If we truly desire to be the kind of fishermen Jesus called Peter and Andrew to be, it's not enough to simply sit on the shore, tucked away in our safe "Christian" bubbles, casting a line every once and awhile; we have to be out in boat. Like a net, our faith has to stretch across every part of our lives.

If we really want to become the type of fisherman Jesus was talking about in Matthew 4, we can't pick and choose with who and when we share our faith; it should be visible to each and every person we come in contact with. If it's not, what's the point? If our lives are no different from the people around us, why bother professing a faith in Jesus Christ?  If they way we conduct our businesses, form our friendships, and spend our free time doesn’t reflect the love of Christ, can we really call ourselves Christians? If we don't want to walk the walk, why waste energy merely talking the talk? Seriously, who are we fooling? Not the people around us, and definitely not God. 

As I considered these things in light of my search for a major and correlating future job, it became rather clear that it doesn't really matter what my job is, but how I do it. Shane Claiborne in his book The Irresistible Revolution puts it this way:

"I was convinced that what we do is not nearly as important as who we are. The question is not whether you will be a doctor or a lawyer but what kind of doctor or lawyer you will be. ...I remember Mother Teresa saying 'Do not worry about your career. Concern yourself with your vocation, and that is to be lovers of Jesus.'" 

I think both Claiborne and Mother Teresa were right.  As Christians our main job is to show Christ’s love in the world, to be his hands and feet. People should be able to see Jesus in the way we live at school, at work, and on the weekends, not just when we’re at church or on a mission trip. Being a Christian isn’t some sort of part time job, it’s a lifetime commitment.  I still don’t know what God is calling me to do, but I know for certain what he’s calling me to be: a faithful lover committed to sharing that love in the broken world He so deeply loves.

"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."

when pintrest lies

Pinterest: the best time squandering site ever invented.

I've recently become addicted to a website called Pinterest. Basically it's a digital wonderland of craft, decorating, cooking, and fashion ideas, namely all the things I enjoy. It's wonderful. Need a recipe? Pinterest. New hairstyle? Pinterest. Feeling crafty? Pinterest. Just plain bored? Pinterest.

However, like the rest of the internet, Pinterest can lie.

***GASP!***

Hannah, Susie, Kelsey, and I experienced this first hand. We had found this really cool idea for a tie die looking manicure and immediately decided to try it. 

Come on, you gotta admit that's cool!

The directions said to drop drops of different shades of nail polish into a cup of water. The polish would then float on the top and all you had to do was swirl  the colors together with a toothpick until it looks the way you want it on top of the water. At this point you would simply dip your nails into water and pull them out looking like the picture.

After watching a couple youtube tutorials, all which worked flawlessly, we thought, "Hey! We can do that." So with the excitement of a 6 year old on Christmas morning we set out to create our own tie die nail creations.  Turns out this is not at all as easy as it looked. Apparently only certain types of polish will float and you have to work SUPER fast or else it dries IN the water! I think we ended up with one satisfactory nail between the four of us. So while our efforts were certainly valiant, it just didn't work for us. SO SAD!

Giving up on water marbling, we decided to give newspaper print nails a try, even though we were now a little skeptical of  our beloved Pinterest. As it turned out our skepticism was unfounded because this time everything worked perfectly.  :)

HOW TO:  Dip your dry and painted nails into rubbing alcohol and then press a piece of newspaper onto your nail. Your nail needs to be wet enough  to soak the paper all the way through. (You should be able to see both sides of the pint). Hold the paper there until it's almost, but not completely, dry and then peel the paper away. (If you let the paper dry completely you run the risk of the paper sticking to your nail.) TA DA! The ink will be left behind. Finish with a clear top coat to keep the ink from rubbing off. 

movies

This Jan Term has been all about the movies. My class, Lone Star Estrella, is a film class. Four hours a day, five days a week, I have been watching and discussing Mexican and Texas movies. We've seen everything from Vamaonos con Poncho Villa (a story about six friends who join Poncho Villa during the Mexican revolution), to Pigskin Parade (a musical about cowboys playing football). Throw in a few Mexican singing cowboy movies, a couple "fallen women", and a little Clark Gable and John Wayne and you've pretty much summed up the course. 

(Pigskin Parade has been my favorite so far. Here's a reason why....)

Not only have I been watching movies the past two weeks, but I've also had the opportunity to be IN a movie.You see a group of theater students here at AC have been busy making a student written, acted, and filmed movie. A couple of my friends had gotten involved and last Friday night, as we were  watching Tangled, they informed the rest of us that the scene that they were planning to shoot the following morning called for a number of extras and asked if we would be interested. It sounded fun and with nothing better to do, I agreed.  So after going to bed unreasonably late, I got up unreasonably early to go be in this movie.

COOL! So what's this movie about Alena? 
Ah, well, about that.... I'm not really sure. But best I can tell it's a space western about a town that is invaded by hooligans who proceed to enslave the townspeople. I think that what we filmed Saturday morning was the first part of the ''slave rebellion".  

As an extra, extra I still don't know exactly what was going on, or where my scene falls in the overall  storyline, but I do know that this movie is a sequel. That video is about 30 minutes long and I enjoyed because a lot of the people in it are also in choir with me. (If you'd like to watch this video click here.)


When the final product is finished, I'll let you all know. :)