Too Tired to Care
At last he stood up again and returned to the disciples, only to find them asleep, exhausted from grief. “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation.” - Luke 22:45-46

The disciples were tired, they knew something was up but couldn't put their finger on what, exactly it was. No matter; Jesus had told them to bring their swords so it must be now! Now they would finally see what they had been waiting all this time to see, Jesus was going to usher in the Kingdom of God and route the Romans and He was going to use them to do it! But as the night drug on and nothing seemed to happen but praying, they grew weary. Pray, pray, pray; that's all we ever get to do. When will the action start, when will we get to fight and kill Romans? The night dragged on Jesus was praying, the Devil was working, Judas was betraying, God was weeping and the disciples were sleeping. 

While Good Men Sleep
Jesus knew what was about to happen and he told them to pray so they would be able to withstand fear and temptation. But- they didn't and they couldn't because they wouldn't - pray. Prayer could have kept Peter from denying, prayer could have kept Matthew and Mark from running, prayer could have kept them all from fearing. But it didn't because they wouldn't. Things go wrong when good men sleep while they should be praying.

A Prayer for Help
Father, so often prayer is the last thing on my priority list. I claim it to be first but it so often falls last. Please forgive me Lord and bring me to the place where I see prayer for what it truly is, spending time with the one who knows me best and loves me most. I want prayer to be a delight.  Give me the grace to press through the discipline into delight.

I love you Father

Jesus met Peter and the boys on the shore of the lake after a poor day of fishing. They had tried everything they knew to get a few fish to make a living for themselves. Along comes Jesus, a carpenter-turned-traveling preacher. Carpenters don't usually know a whole lot about commercial fishing unless of course they are from Alaska and you need many trades in order to make ends meet. But these guys are not , they were born into their trades and they would pass the family business on tho their sons after them also. So along comes the non-fishing carpenter Jesus and he tells these life-long wave warriors what
they need to do to catch a load of fish. If I were with Peter and the boys, I'm not sure how I would have responded, but they listened to Jesus because He was different; different than anyone they had ever met before. Reluctantly but obediently they rowed out into the deep water (not a great place to catch fish that usually run close to the shore) and threw out their nets AGAIN. This time it was all different. They caught the biggest catch of their lives!

To me this is not the most amazing part of the story. We all know that Jesus is different, that He is God and can do anything. We know that He can make a bunch of fish swim into a fisherman's net because He's God and he does "God-stuff" all the time. What is amazing to me is the response of the Disciples, these guys are not "God-men" they are just men like me. They are concerned about their future, their families, their children, how they will pay their taxes and rent and food. They are filled with the same concerns of life that I am and yet... The very provision that they needed to pay the bills etc., Jesus had just provided. But they left it all. They had just landed the biggest deal (catch) of their lives and yet at one word from Jesus they walked away from it all for the promise of the unknown. "Unknown?" Not really. They knew that they would be with Him, His presence was all the security they needed. They just walked away from the biggest catch of their lives to follow Jesus. It says in Luke 5:21 that they "left everything and followed Jesus." It seems that when you are in God's will and following Jesus that provision is not a problem. So, what really was the greatest catch?