Simon (Peter) along with his partners James and John had a terrible night fishing. After hours of effort, they had caught nothing. The next morning Jesus entered Peter’s boat and began to teach the people. He then said to Peter, “Go out a little deeper, and cast your net into the sea.”
Peter replied, “Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net” (Luke 5:5). When Peter and his partners did this, they caught so many fish that their net broke! Peter’s boat, along with the boat belonging to James and John were so full of fish that they began to sink.
Once they got back to shore with their giant catch, the Savior said to Peter, “Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men” (Luke 5:10). Peter and his partners left all of the fish behind and followed Jesus (see Luke 5:11).
A lesson I love from this account is, Christ asks to leave when the nets are full. Imagine if the Lord had asked Peter to quit his work as a fisherman after a discouraging night. It would be easy for Peter to say, “Sure, I hate fishing anyways, I might as well quit.” But that’s not what Christ did. He waited until Peter had completed the best catch of his life – and then invited him to leave it all behind.
One of my favorite examples of this occurrence in recent decades has to do with the call of Elder Robert D. Hales.
Elder Hales was called to be a General Authority when he was just 43 years old. At the time of his call he was the President of Chesebrough-Pond’s, a large company that sold many products, including Vaseline . This was a huge company – it did nearly one billion dollars in annual sales one year following Elder Hales tenure). He walked away from a lucrative career to serve the Lord full time.
Even more interesting though is that Elder Hales said that the decision to leave his corporate career behind was easy, compared to a tough choice he had to make when his nets were full during the decade of his twenties. Elder Hales said, describing a time when he was newly married and in graduate school:
“I was at Harvard Business School. I was stretched to my capacity. In a student’s first year at that institution, the teachers take away every bit of self-confidence you have, no matter what your background is…
“At an important point in my schooling, a mission president asked me to be an Elders Quorum President. It is the only time in my life that I ever questioned an assignment…
“So I went home and said to my wife, “There is a chance of failing in my schooling if I become an elders quorum president.” She said to me the words which have helped for many years: “Bob, I would rather have an active priesthood holder than a man who holds a master’s degree from Harvard.” But as she put her arms around me, she said, “We’ll do them both.”
“That decision was much harder to make then than when, years later, I accepted the call to serve as [a General Authority] and left my business career behind. Some people may have trouble understanding that, but I believe you really show the Lord who you are and what you are willing to become when you make those hard decisions as a young person.”
Whether we are old or young, God will often call us to leave when the nets are full!
