Simon + math equations

Yesterday I forgot to mention our experience at noontime prayer (at the house of prayer for all nations). We have only been there twice. People from all different churches have prayer and a message from 12:30-2. Yesterday a man named Elijah spoke about Luke 5:1-10. In the passage, Simon is cleaning his nets and Jesus gets in the boat. He tells Simon to push away from the land into deep water and put his nets in to catch fish. Simon tells Jesus, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” Simon puts the nets down and there were so many fish that the nets were breaking and the boat started sinking; they even filled another boat with fish because there was no room.

When Elijah finished reading the story, he noted that the name Simon means “trouble.” He even made a joke about Americans naming their kids with meaningless names. Meaning was everything. The name Simon was given to him because there must have been some sort of trouble at his birth. Simon was a professional fisherman and he knew what it was like to catch fish. A night where he didn’t catch anything would be difficult. When Simon failed to catch fish that night, Jesus called him to get away from the crowds and into deep water. Elijah noted that anyone can pretend to swim in shallow water, but no one can pretend to swim in deep waters. Jesus called Simon to go deep, despite his circumstances. Where we see failure is where God sees an opportunity to reveal his power and love to us and those around us. It was an awesome message.

This morning we went to Favor’s ministry house for prayer. Instead of having devotions this week, the staff is praying from 8-4. Angela and I went from 8-11. It was a good time of singing, sharing, and praying. There is this hilarious guy named Richard who always says that praising God is like the mathematical equation: y=mx+b. There is always a constant—it is never zero. Our praise may vary, but if we don’t praise, even the rocks will cry out. Even though it’s a great point, I can’t stop laughing every time he says it!

Anyway, we came back early and I got to talk to my cousin Sarah for a while about all the funny things I’ve seen. We might go to a coffee shop tonight. That should be fun! I hope you are all doing well. I’m having a really good time here!