One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”
Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”
When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.
Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him. - Luke 5:1-11
It is definitely humbling to find out that someone else is better than you at the profession that you have chosen. We each build up expertise through insight, training and experience and we treasure that as a sign of our unique significance in the world. We rank ourselves based on these to establish our importance to ourselves and others.
If a preacher came to me and said, 'You know, just move that 'if' clause into that other function." I would shake my head, but out of respect, I might humor the preacher, change the code and start recompiling. I wouldn't expect any better results, just another error like the ones I had been fighting for hours before.
And if the code not only compiled and ran after adopting his suggestion, but the performance was extraordinarily better than I could forecast, I might have a small glimpse of what Peter felt at that moment when he told Jesus, "Go away from me, Lord. I am a sinful man."
Because all of my expertise was for nothing. This preacher showed that he understood my business better than I did. Comparatively, I know nothing. And if he tells me that he wants to show me something else: "from now on you will fish for people." I would be ready to listen.
God knows my business better than I do. Every solution I am looking for is in his mind already and he can share with me when he is ready. He has things to teach me that are important for me and others that I haven't even thought about yet.
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