Just Add Boiling Water

 

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ne Saturday morning I staggered into the kitchen and rummaged through the fridge in an attempt to unearth something for breakfast.  I had bacon, but no eggs, cereal, but no milk, and jam but no bread to put it on.  So far, the morning wasn’t looking promising!  Then I remembered my private stash on the second shelf just above my canned vegetables.  It sat there in quiet reserve waiting for moments such as these!! 

 

In a plastic storage container, tucked neatly beside my supply of cereal and bread, which were both nonexistent that morning, stood my supply of instant grits, a mainstay for any southerner and I grabbed them with reckless abandon.  I walked to the stove, turned on the heat underneath the kettle, and waited as mother nature turned those lovely little hydrogen and oxygen atoms into the boiling liquid I need to prepare breakfast. 

 

In just a few moments, the kettle was singing, and I was humming, knowing that a piping hot bowl of buttery grits was just ahead.  I poured the boiling water into the bowl and a wonderful transformation took place.  With the addition of the hot water, the grits metamorphosed from a powder into, well you know, grits!  This all happened in a matter of seconds, and I found myself being very thankful that we live in an “instant” society where grits can be had in a matter of minutes instead of slaving over a hot stove until they are done. 

 

As I finished that last spoonful, something clicked!  How often we want the Christian life to be like a bowl of instant grits.  We want God to move in our lives pronto and give us everything at once.   We expect when we become Christians that spiritual maturity, the ability to fathom the scriptures, and the most intimate relationship with God become ours in a split second!  This shows just how naïve we are and how little we understand about having a relationship with Christ. 

 

But let’s not be too hard on ourselves.  We are in good company because Jesus explained that a relationship with him wasn’t instantaneously deep; it required time, effort, and was in fact a process.  In Mark 1:17, we read Jesus’ words to Peter and his brother Andrew, "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." They were in a boat because they were professional fishermen.  Their entire lives had been spent plying their trade on the open sea.  If it involved fish, Andrew and Peter knew all about it.  What they did not know, was how to catch men!  That was what Jesus wanted them to understand! 

 

In our passage today notice that Jesus tells them they “would become” fishers of men not that they “were already” fishers of men.  They knew how to cast and mend nets and they knew how to steer a ship all for the purpose of catching fish. Now, they would cast out onto the sea of humanity and catch and mend the hearts of men.  Now they would steer the lives of people on a course that would bring them straight to Jesus.  These were all the things they would learn to do over the next three years and each day would bring them closer than the day before.  No magic, no hocus pocus, no sleight of hand just consistent, daily, walking with their savior, learning again and again to be one of his disciples. 

 

Today whether you are at home, in a warehouse, in an office, in front of a computer terminal, on the phone, or on vacation, please know that your relationship with Christ is a process.  God intends for you to learn that a relationship with Him takes time and effort. This means that you are farther down the road today than yesterday but not as far as you will be tomorrow.  He can and will use the circumstances in your life for His glory.  All you have to do is follow Him and be willing to let Him change you one step at a time.  There is no “instant” way to make a disciple!