The roads of this country
would be a much safer place if Christians remembered they had a plastic Jesus
fish stuck to the back of their car. Then we might drive like we were law
abiding, polite, saved drivers instead of cutting people off and visibly
showing our distaste when it happens to us. It turns out that the plastic sea
dweller on the back of your car is actually making a statement. That is, of
course unless you have that Jesus fish that is showing his superiority to
evolution by eating that blasphemous Darwin fish with legs.
Hundreds of years before we
started sticking this iconic symbol on minivans and business cards, the Early
Church used it as a kind of secret password between followers of the “Way.”
Times were hard and emperors were cruel and when everyday faced the reality
that you could be stoned, flogged, or eaten by lions to the delight of
thousands of spectators, having a way to secretly identify other believers was
vital. The symbol was placed over door frames and on aqueducts to show
believers that that was a safe place to stay, free from Roman tyranny. I think
I always knew that part but I have always wondered why a fish would represent
this supernatural movement in history. Curiosities turn to Google searches
rather quickly for me.
I found out that the symbol itself represents
an acronym for the Greek word for fish, Ichthys, which kind of sounds like you are sneezing if you say
it really fast. Go ahead and try it. Now wipe your nose and get ready for a
very brief lesson in Greek. Ancient Greece had a different alphabet than we do,
so they would have seen this word as ΙΧΘΥΣ with each letter representing a different word that translates into "Jesus
Christ, God's Son, Savior.”
Well that is cool, but
it is still all Greek to me.
The significance of
using a fish was still a mystery to me though, until I remembered what the
disciples used to do before they started changing the world. Before they dealt
with people, they dealt with fish. Most of the disciples would have grown up
into a family with a generational tradition of vocational fishing. Their
fathers fished, as did their fathers before them and before them. Fishing was what
they were born to do and what they would die doing. They knew that for the rest
of their lives they would wake up early, get in a boat, cast a few nets, draw
the nets back in and pray that it would be enough to make a living. It was the
monotony they were destined for.
Then a man named Jesus
came and changed everything. He walks right up to these fishermen, says one
very simple statement and these men literally drop everything and dedicate
their lives to Him. He does not promise them a life of adventure away from all
this boring fish stuff. He does not tell them that their lives are going to be
super exciting and that they won’t dread waking up in the mornings. All He does
is take what they were already doing and makes it more significant.
He says “I will make
you fishers of Men.”
Basically Jesus was telling
His disciples “I am calling you to do something that matters, something with
eternal value and significance that you would never be able to do on your own.
And I am going to start with your current monotonous life and make it
glorious.”
The great majority of
people live lives full of monotony. We file papers, drive kids around, and
listen to professors, teachers and executives talk all day. We do the same
basic task every day with the hopes that one day we can earn enough to retire
from it all and then commit to doing nothing until we croak.
What Jesus and the
little fish stuck to the back of your car are trying to tell you is that one
day it will all mean something. One day that thing you were faithful in doing
your whole life regardless of how boring and tiring it was will be worth it.
One day God will show up and show out right in the middle of your workplace and
you will see that you have not been working in vain. One day God is going to
use all the knowledge and ability you have gained over your whole life (though
you did not know why) and use it to further His kingdom. One day your day job
will matter.
Following Jesus
sometimes feels like a glorious monotony where we wander aimlessly in the
desert but are daily surprised by fresh revelation and added significance. God
sees you and He knows your heart and how long you have been waiting for His
promise. He has seen your faithfulness to doing whatever you needed to do to
make it all happen and letting Him take care of everything else. He has seen every
time you turned off the alarm, rolled out of bed and knowingly went off to a
job or a situation you did not want to face but did anyway with a smile. He has
seen every promotion and accolade you deserved but did not get. He has seen how
long you have been doing the same thing just to make ends meet. Let Him make it
all worth something.
Let Him add value to
what you are already doing by asking His vision for your circumstance. Ask Him
what He wants to do in your workplace or school. Ask Him where He can be found
in the glorious monotony called your life.
Wake up tomorrow with
vision instead of dread. Wake up with mission from God. Kick your monotony in
the jugular and show it who is boss.
