Rebel Corner

 

On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. (Luke 5:1-11 ESV).

 

I am fully aware without a deluge of email or comments that the picture I’ve attached today is not as culturally acceptable as when it was taken on one of our early trips to the Smokies in 1975. It is “Rebel Corner” in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. It has long ago been remodeled and updated, although it still is the center of souvenirs and mementos for the tourist. In all our years of traveling with our children to the Smokies, my favorite part was our obligatory ride through the national park and Cade’s Cove. The boys liked it as well, enjoying the wildlife and panoramic views. However, they were also drawn to the “stuff” of the souvenir shops. And, yes, we did come away from each of those stops with various mementos, including at least one Stars and Bars Confederate flag, a coonskin cap or two, and several Indian headdresses.

 

Well, back to our reading. I hope you notice how easy it was for the disciples to get sidetracked by relatively meaningless stuff. We are often surrounded by magnificent events or people or tasks, and all we do is “take in the gift shops.” We miss what is really there because we are distracted by the trivial. Peter and the others had good reason to be fishing. It was their livelihood. They probably thought they would be fishing every day for the rest of their lives. And there wouldn’t have been anything wrong with that. But God had something else in mind for them. We should take care not to be distracted by the ­trivial things in life and miss what God might be calling us to do. The gift shop isn’t all there is. He has so much more in store for us all.