Try the Other Side

This is the time of year for sun and water.  Temperatures rise, the days are longer, and the itch to go down to the lake or hang out at the swimming pool is intensifying.  The kids can smell summer!  It is getting harder to get them out of bed in the mornings and convince them that an indoor classroom still has a lot to offer!   Nathan has his mind on boats right now.  He wonders if we can go down to the lake and take a boat ride with our friends.  I don’t mind wearing a lifejacket, mom!  And I promise I will put on my sunscreen! I just want to jump off the dock again!

Boating is a great summer hobby, but for many people it is a way of life and it is also how some make a living.  There are all kinds of references to water and boats in scripture.  This morning as we were praying before school, and one of the many fascinating scriptures we used had to do with boats and water and comes from John 21: 1-6.  Jesus sees some men fishing….  Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, and two other disciples. He appears to them in the early morning, and he realizes that they haven’t caught even one fish.  They had been out all night, casting their nets on the left side of the boat, in shallow water. Jesus can sense their frustration.  He knows that they are probably too tired to keep trying, and very near giving up.  Jesus has compassion for their predicament, and decides to intervene, and gives them very direct instructions. Jesus calls them “friends” and tells them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat and promises that they will find some fish.  They did, and they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish!  

 

How many of us have tried to pray for something and we just weren’t getting the results we expected?  Praying is a lot like fishing.  Every time we pray, we cast a net.  I think it is very interesting that the left side of the boat and the right side of the boat are key in this story.  In symbolic terms, water usually refers to our emotional state.  If we find ourselves in a difficult situation, the waters are “stormy”.  Maybe a job loss, a serious illness, a sudden death of a loved one, a natural disaster, or the end of a very significant relationship. When we experience things that “seem” to be going our way,  we find ourselves in calm waters, instead of wave after wave.  Praying, or casting our net, in shallow waters, we find our faith lessening, our trust in God dissolving, and we allow the physical world of our circumstances, what we physically see before us, take over our heart and mind. To these fishermen, they know the fish are there, but all of their spiritual and prayerful energy is focused on the empty net. Set your mind in things above, not on things of the earth.  Colossians 3:2  And since what we give energy to just keeps expanding, they keep coming up with an empty net. It is no accident that it is night when they decide to go fishing. Lack of anything is equal to darkness. The bottom line for these fishermen is that they are trying to bring something that is invisible, but believed to exist, to the visible world.  They have forgotten to rely on God instead of themselves.

 

Prayer is an energy that creates… a sacred act of creation that manifests something from the unseen to the seen. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe…John 20:29 When we pray, we use both the left side of our brain and the right side of our brain.   The left side of our brain is believed to be the side of logic, details, planning.  The left side of the brain also responds to verbal instructions. It is the “earth” of our existence, the tangible world before us. The right side of our brain is very intuitive, creative, fluid, and very free with feelings.  Belief in a higher power or being spiritual is thought to be of the right side, and the right side of our brain doesn’t really get into hierarchy, but rather likes the collegial approach to leadership. It is the right side of our brain that responds well to demonstrated instruction.  It is the Heaven of what we long to experience.  For in him all things were created,  in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…all things were created through him and for him.  Corinthians 1:16

 

When Jesus gets specific about where to cast their nets, he calls his disciples from knowing to believing.  He needs them to go to the right side of the boat, and cast their net into the deeper waters of seeing the fish as already there, and feeling the heaviness of the net. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not seen…Hebrews 11;1   Telling them exactly what to do satisfies the “left side” of creation.  But Jesus is challenging them to take it one step further and to trust in the power of God to fill their nets to overflowing.  He is hoping they will engage in the right side of praying, living, and believing.  Jesus is demonstrating that the power to co-create what they need lies within them, where God resides.  He challenges their idea of how their nets get filled.  Praying to a Source that lies outside of us, we are never really sure what we are going to get and our energy becomes double-minded. Will God answer this prayer, or won’t he?  Will I find my net full and heavy, or empty?   The real source of a full net is the power of God, not the fishermen going it alone.  Their nets are filled as the sun comes up.  When we realize that praying to the Source of all Creation is not outside us, but in our “deepness”, and our nets can never go empty, and when we trust  God- within to supply our every need, the sun will have risen upon our minds. And we will truly embark upon a new day in our prayer lives. For these fishermen, the old saying is true.  It is always darkest just before dawn.  Lack always precedes abundance, or we wouldn't recognize abundance.

 

If you have been praying for something to happen, and it hasn’t happened in quite the way you thought it would, or not in the time frame that you have set, try casting your net on the other side of your boat (your situation).  Use your left brain, and get quiet. Let God bring divine order to your mind. Be still and know that He is God… Psalm 46:10 Listen for God’s instructions. Allow God’s power to infuse both hemispheres of creation.  Act on those instructions, and speak with the authority of God-in-you.  And then put your right brain into motion, and believe that you have received. Stand strong in your faith. Feel the heaviness of that net, and hear the shouts of joy that Abundance has blessed you with.  Praise God for your part in the creation before you, and thank God for his power to bring it into the visible world.   You will never go hungry again.  You will never have to sit in the dark, wondering if God really hears you and knows you are there.   You will never have to question whether your faith is good enough, or deep enough, or big enough to get your prayer answered.  Asking God again and again for something is over.  Bargaining with God for “just this one thing” ceases. Doing good works in the hopes to get a prayer answered stops.  Trying to be something you are not just to bring in abundance makes no more sense.

 

This summer when you are relaxing in your boat or lying on the shore of a lake, remember to cast your nets in deeper waters. If something about your life just doesn’t seem to be working for you, try the other side of life as a co-creator with God. God wants to instruct and provide. We just have to go a little deeper, believe larger, and think higher. When God sees a need, he will step in, right into the darkness with you, and he will not just throw you a life-jacket, he will wrap you in the jacket of life and buckle you in promised safety.  Wrapped in bright hues of  faith, leaving the shores of lack behind, He will hand you the sun and walk with you into a morning that is forever!