The Journey 50: Transformation in my personal life

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Read: Luke 5:1-11
Key Verse: “Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in His ways, you will eat the fruit of your labour, blessing and prosperity will be yours” [ Psalms 128:1,2]

                Being in Philly, I am supporter of Philly Sixers. But yesterday their dream run this season is running into rough weather as they lost a very close game to the Minnesota Timberwolves, 92-91. But in NBA circles, there is new phenomena that everybody talks about today “Linsanity”. It is all about an Asian American Christian, named Jeremy Lin, a Harvard product, who plays today for New York Knicks. A  month ago he was nowhere, no future and he was sent to the minor leagues of the NBA. A few days later he was reinstated with the Knicks as a benchwarmer. Two weeks back on February 4, at halftime in a home game against New Jersey, injured Knicks star Carmelo Anthony suggested to coach Mike D'Antoni that he play Lin more in the second half. That game was when people noticed Lin, where he scored 25 points, with 5 rebounds and 7 assists. The next game he had 28 points and eight assists, and last week he scored 38 points for a victory over the Lakers, capping off a remarkable week and a four-game winning streak. Yesterday was another superb day for Jeremy Lin. He had 28 points and a career-high 14 assists, which helped the  New York Knicks to defeat Dallas Mavericks 104-97 , thus ending the Mavericks  six-game winning streak. After his first big game, Lin became a starter. After the second one, he became the talk of the nation. After the third one and with the victory yesterday, he seems to be a Hall of Famer in the making.  But is the identity of Jeremy Lin only tagged to NBA. No his story is a story of how God can transform an unknown individual and bring into his life success and meaning in the sports that he is involved. When reporters asked him about the fame and adulation that he was getting Jeremy said “ "It doesn't change who I am. My identity is in Christ." And he continues to say “I've surrendered everything to God. When I play, I'm not in a battle with what everybody else thinks anymore. I just do my best, the result is what God gives”.
                 On Monday’s we meditate on how we can bring about transformation in our personal life. This week we are meditating on the life and times of Simon Peter, the first followers of Jesus Christ. In Luke 5 we find., that when Jesus boards the boat of Simon Peter, he may have been going through bouts of frustration and depression. A man who struggled all day night to make a living and also to make a decent living is left high and dry. He is desolate not knowing what his day holds for him as he has caught nothing. It is similar to a sales personnel who is struggling to get his job secure but then realizes that after a day’s of hard work, he has not been able to sell anything. We all go through this phase or experience that Peter went through.  We work and slog the whole day, but at the end of the day when we evaluate what is it that we have gained…...sometimes it is nothing. It is this void that Jesus fills the life of Peter. He commands Peter to draw the net again. But Peter knows that it is futile to draw the nets yet he says “ I will let down the nets because you say so [ Luke 5:5]. The result is obvious. They catch a huge shoal of fish. Peter cannot believe his eyes. It is here that I think Jesus Christ teaches us a valuable lesson. There are times in life when you are at a cross road, there are times in life when you don't know what should be my next move, there are times in life when you don't what step you should take. In that context, what is needed is not looking at the result or consequences but just surrender everything to the Lord. He will give us the results that is best for us. Transformation is all about not being concerned as to at the results, but putting our best for the Lord and trusting that the Lord that He will  us best for us in our life.
Lin-Sanity is all about that…………...

Let us Pray: Lord there are times when we are over concerned about our fruits of our labour. We focus more on the effort that we do rather than surrendering everything into your hands. Help us to blindly obey you . Amen

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