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“Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” —Luke 5:4
Now more than at any other time in history, we are at risk of drowning in superficiality. We can access an almost infinite amount of information at the touch of a button, yet we are slipping further and further away from the truth. We have more possessions than we ever thought possible and have much less substance. We have technology that lets us converse with someone on the other side of the globe whom we will never meet, while we are losing the capacity to be genuine, authentic, and intimate with others right here at home. The rich dimensions of the human heart are being obscured as we expand our range but lose our depth.
When Jesus appeared after his resurrection to Peter, he initiated a profound encounter with his friend. Three times, Jesus asked, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” ?(John 21:15-17). By asking this question, not once, but three times, Jesus was inviting Peter to go deeper and deeper into his way of love, mercy, and forgiveness. For each one of us, that invitation still stands today.
Etty Hillesum was a deep thinker and writer who died in Auschwitz at the age of twenty-nine. Though she was Jewish, her spiritual journey led her to read the New Testament and the lives of the saints with great passion. Her writings are contained in the book Etty Hillesum: An Interrupted Life and Letters from Westerbork and reflect a profound understanding of the mystery of the cross in the years she was confined in occupied Amsterdam, before being transferred to the death camps.
Hillesum wrote, “There is a really deep well inside me. And in it dwells God. Sometimes I am there too. But more often stones and grit block the well, and God is buried beneath. Then God must be dug out again.”24
What are the stones and grit that are in God’s way in your heart? How will you respond to the Lord’s invitation to enter more deeply into his love? Truly, God draws us with his questions and guides us along a path to a deeper place of knowing. Let us answer him with our willingness to go beneath the surface to find him.
Lord, give me ears to hear the questions you pose to my innermost being.
Just for Today: I will listen deeply.