Luke 5:4 ISV “When he had finished speaking he told Simon, ‘Push out into the deep water, and lower your nets for a catch.'”
What is something that you wouldn’t consider your strong point? Is it public speaking? Is it selling a product? Or is it asking people for donations to raise money for a charity? Did you push yourself beyond your comfort zone to accomplish the task at hand? What happened when you pushed yourself? Did you realize that the task wasn’t as bad as you thought it would be? Were you surprised with the blessings that resulted from the push?
Yesterday, my co-worker and I volunteered to push a snack cart on 3 floors at work to raise money for a charity. The money that we raised would go towards the overall goal of the donation. Her and I both laughed and said “I’m not good at sales”. I said “I’ve never been good at sales. When people say no I keep it moving LOL. I don’t force people to buy things, because I don’t like to feel pressured when people are trying to sell things to me”. My co-worker laughed and said “see we shouldn’t have been partners because I’m the same way. I don’t know how we’re going to work this out”. Out of nowhere another co-worker said “Brandi, just use your voice”. I said ” You’re right. I’ll just say snack cart its for charity as we push the cart on each floor”. I thought to myself that was great advice as my partner and I went to go pick up the snack cart. Before her and I made it to the elevator, a colleague stopped us and purchased 2 snacks. We both smiled and said “Look we didn’t even have to say anything. The sale came to us”.
As we went from floor to floor pushing the cart using our voices, people were coming out of their cubicle to gather around the cart to see the snacks we had for sale. I realized that as we were pushing ourselves (the snack cart) out of our comfort zone, that God had already given us the grace through our voices to attract people to raise money. Although there were some people who were not interested in purchasing the snacks, I didn’t feel bad or uncomfortable like how I did in past experiences with selling products. There were plenty of people buying more than one snack that it made up for the people who passed on the opportunity to support the charity. The advice that our co-worker gave us prior was God telling us that if we use what we are good at (communication) it will help with what we were are not strong in (selling).
In life we all experience something that makes us uncomfortable, something that’s not our strong point, and something we have to push ourselves through. All God asks is that we push and He will provide the grace, take care of all our needs, and will ease the process after the push. When we push ourselves into the deep end, God will meet us there with an unexpected outcome.