Isaiah 6:1-8 / 1 Cor 15:1-11 / Luke 5:1-11
One of the rather stressful things to do is to drive and navigate at the same time.
This usually happens when we are going to an unfamiliar place for the first time.
We will certainly need some navigation aids, especially when driving around in dense and congested areas.
Before the modern electronic navigation aids like the GPS came to the scene, drivers have to rely on roadmaps.
Some of us may remember the “Singapore Street Directory”.
Drivers going to an unfamiliar destination will have to keep one eye on the road and the other eye on the road map.
One hand will be on the steering wheel, and the other hand on the page of the road map.
Oh yes, those were stressful driving moments, and to make the situation even more frustrating, some maps were not updated.
But with the modern electronic navigation aids like GPS, driving to an unfamiliar destination is not that challenging or difficult.
We only need to switch on the GPS device, and it will show where we are in the electronic map and there's even a voice navigator to guide us along.
The gospel began with Jesus teaching by the lakeside. Then He got into one of the boats because of the crowd, and continued to teach from there.
The boat belonged to Simon Peter, so while he was washing his nets, he was also listening to Jesus.
When Jesus had finished speaking, He turned to Peter and said: Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for catch.
Simon Peter was taken by surprise and maybe confused. He had worked hard all night long and caught nothing.
Nonetheless, he said to Jesus: But if you say so, I will pay out the nets.
And then they caught so much fish that Simon Peter was stunned.
Simon Peter was stunned, but he was not stunned into silence.
Rather, he confessed his sinfulness and unworthiness in the presence of the authority and majesty of Jesus.
Before Jesus told him to put out into the deep waters, Simon Peter had his own ideas about what to do and where to go in life.
But that voice from Jesus was like the voice from the GPS device that told Simon Peter where to go and what to do.
The voice of God that we hear in the Scriptures is like the voice from the GPS device.
And instead of calling it the “Global Positioning System”, we can call it “God's Positioning System”.
And like how we follow the voice navigator in the GPS device, when we listen to the voice of God in the Scriptures, we will know where to go and what to do.
And when we ourselves listen to the voice of God in the Scriptures, then we too can become “God's Positioning System” for others.
There is one peculiarity about that voice navigator in the GPS device.
When we make a wrong turn or when we don't follow its directions, it does not reprimand us.
It will simply adjust our route and tells us where to turn next.
So, we need to listen to what God is saying to us in the Scriptures, so as to know where to go and what to do.
And even if we get confused, or reluctant like Simon Peter, God will still keep prompting us until we reach our destination.
And when we are the GPS for others, or “God's Positioning System” for others, they may not always listen to our suggestion or directions.
But we keep praying and keep listening to what God wants us to tell them.
With God, we will get to our destination.
Or, like Simon Peter, we may get a new direction.
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