Breakfast for the Boys- John 21

Uh! okay, Bloggie...so you're mad at me for not visiting you in a while. Well, I haven't been able to give much thought to my words or rather I haven't been able to give words to my thoughts...See! how confused I am! Anyways this one is a rant...to be read by all the readers of this blog. I mean, why can't people leave a comment on the blog itself? Unless they want to say something really nasty, which has not happened thus far. It would make me really happy,to see a comment on this blog. It is so encouraging to see a mail saying 'New Comment' on blog. but i get to hear it on mail or in person or on the telephone.
Come to think of it, we are all such social creatures...atleast I am. I am amazed at myself because when I started this blog I told myself that this was only my free mind putting across my free thoughts and that I 'didn't care' if someone read them or not.Well, it doesn't seem like I am holding on to that philosophy any longer. I want to be read and encouraged!!!

Personally I think encouragement is just so important in life. To be told that what we do/ did is good or that it makes a difference.. I am sure it is the same case with most people, Encouragement works like magic. Flattery ofcourse, doesn't get one anywhere but true encouragement can do wonders to the soul. Christ is a great Encourager.

I am reminded of the time when after the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, the disciples went back to fishing... their old trade, and even after a whole night of toil... they caught no fish..It must have been so disappointing to know that the ocean, once their 'friend and mainstay' who had always given itself in abundance to them, was suddenly 'empty'. And then they see Jesus who encourages them to cast their nets to the 'other' side. And what a catch it was ...153, silvery, slippery, delicious fish!. The disciples' eyes' must have popped out of their sockets.
Methinks, when Jesus said cast it on the other side, He meant cast it onto the side of 'faith'; this was the hitherto unseen side of the ocean - the ' faith side' that the disciples had missed seeing.
Also note how Christ doesn't get angry at them for getting back to their 'old ways', back to fishing. He could have been irritated and told them that He had, for three years, taught them to be Fishers of Men! but yet the minute He was crucified, they thought all had ended and they went back to fishing. Three years of training, of prayer, of seeing miracles, of preparation all gone down the drain....in this case down the sea!!

It is like Amma taking three hours to teach me Math and I shake my head to show that I understand and yet after half-an-hour, I still make the same error... it is so exasperating.
As a leader and as the Son of Man, He may have been disappointed but as God, as Father, He didn't get angry that they had gone 'back to square one.' Instead there too, He fulfilled their need and asked them to cast their nets on the other side.

i believe that Jesus did this to show that even in our daily everyday things , things that we think, we know like the back of our palm and yet we err in - even in those things God can work.
The disciples, were confident, while Christ was with them (in human form) and while they were with Him, they were genuinely 'good boys' who did everything without question and wanted to please Him, even if it didn't make sense to untie an unknown person's little donkey and to tell Him, that the Master' had asked for it.

Even in my walk with the Lord, there are moments when I am so filled with His spirit that all I want to do is please Him, yet there are other times when i don't know how to pray and I try all my old ways. But He gently chides me for not casting on the 'faith side', but never gets angry. He understands our fraility as human beings, yours and mine. I am sure it must have disappointed Him nonetheless that His disciples, who were literally His shadow, and whom He had prepared for such a great Commission, when He was no more with them in physical form, they did not realise His spiritual presence and went back to their old trade.
Yet He encourages...he blesses them with another miracle and this time not only do they catch fish, they catch 153, their nets stay unharmed and what's more He is waiting on the shore, ready to cook Breakfast for the Boys....what a loving Father , Friend, Encourager, God!!

Which brings me back to my rant that I wish that people who read my blog would encourage me by posting their comments on my Blog itself. Try it people, it will make this blogger really happy..