How do we go on?

April 26, 2022

Have you ever been thoroughly discouraged or been through some circumstance that has left you wondering about your purpose or life in general? As humans, we know that we will experience change. However, when the change comes outside of our control, as it often does, while we know change will take place, we tend to be thrown into a tailspin. How do we go on?

Take Peter for instance. For 3 years. he had spent time with his Rabbi. Jesus was not just his rabbi though. Not now. Jesus might have been only his rabbi early on after He first called him. That seemed like it was in a past lifetime. Yes, he still learned from Jesus and really hung on almost every word that came from His lips. Yet, He was so much more. He was Peter’s friend. As the master, He took on the place of a servant and had washed Peter’s feet. He did not act like so many others of Peter’s day. No! He made Himself act like so many others of Peter’s day. No! He made Himself equals with His disciples . . . never lording His authority over them. Peter had experienced the rising of the morning sun nearly 1,000 times with Jesus. Still, after His death, and now miraculous resurrection, he had barely seen Him.

How was Peter to go on?  So many things had changed. His time/relationship with Jesus. His understanding of someone dying  – dying no longer meant that someone would stay dead. What was he to do? Peter must have wondered the same thing. Now all he could do was what he had always done.

He said to his friends, “I’m going fishing.” He did not know what else to do, so why not fish? It helped him clear his head. The exhilaration of catching fish to sell to provide for his family always helped. Only, this night (the time when fishermen went out to fish) was like several others he had experienced over the course of his life. Nothing – it described everything about his life. He caught nothing that night. He had nothing for his future. He wanted to fish, but how could he return to doing the same thing that he had done before his time with Jesus when so much had changed because of Jesus. But how could he do what he had done with Jesus when he had rejected Him?

On our own, when the world around us seems to shift and change right beneath our feet, how do we go on? When someone we love whom we have known well passes away and that person had been everything to us, what are we to do? When we lose our job which we have invested our lives into, what are we to do? When the society we have known changes right before our eyes, what are we to do? When the world we have known seemingly becomes engulfed in unrest and animosity, what are we to do?

We are to look to Jesus. He has the answers. Let Him give you direction and set you on a new course in the world that has changed in front of your very eyes, a course that brings you alongside the immutable (unchanging) God!