Fishers of Men

“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Mark 1:17

I will always remember my dad for being eternally young and enthusiastic. Even when he was 90 plus years old already, he would not let his feeble frame stop him from going out on a fishing boat in Batangas with fishermen to find fish. He walked slowly to the boat with someone to support him. He was put in a chair to be carried inside the boat. He was out in the sun for 6 hours looking for fish. His fish finder conked out but he came back still convinced there was much fish to be caught off the coast of Batangas. He was not discouraged after hours under the sun.

We too are called to be “fishermen”, but not of fish, but of men. Do we easily get discouraged after people don’t respond to our invitation to join an online prayer meeting or listen to an inspirational talk? I listened to a woman share about how she found the Lord after a neighbor just kept persistently listening to her problems. They would be sitting down at a coffee shop or on the steps to her home, and the neighbor would patiently encourage her and pray for her, until one day she decided to go with her to a Life in The Spirit Seminar. 

Ric Warren, the founder of Saddleback Church, wrote on one Facebook post, “The night before my father died, my wife, my niece, and I were in his bedroom by his side. Dad suddenly became very agitated and tried to get out of bed," Warren continued. "Of course, he was too weak to get up so Kay insisted he lay back down. But he kept persisting in trying to get out of bed. Finally, Kay in exasperation said 'Jimmy, you CANNOT get up! You are dying. We will get you whatever you need. What are you trying to do?'

"My dad replied, 'I've got to save one more for Jesus! I've got to save one more for Jesus! One more for Jesus! One more for Jesus!' He began to repeat that phrase over and over and over. It is no exaggeration to say that during the next hour, he repeated the phrase probably a hundred times: 'Got to save one more for Jesus!'"

No wonder Ric Warren is so passionate about what he does! “While my head was bowed,” Warren recounted, “my dad reached out and placed his frail hand on my head and said, as if commissioning me with a sacred calling, 'Reach one more for Jesus! Reach one more for Jesus!' It was a holy moment and I knew what I was supposed to do the rest of my life, regardless of problems, illnesses, conflicts, critics, attacks, delays, difficulties, or any other barriers," he wrote.