Launch Out Into the Deep

WEEKLY DEVOTIONAL BY PATRICE TSAGUE

Have you ever been in a place in your life or business where your hard work failed to yield results?
What has been your response at such times?
Has God ever asked you to “launch out into the deep”?

Launch Out Into the Deep

I once had the privilege to visit the beautiful city of Freetown; a small city in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Freetown is surrounded by ocean, and people come from as far as Asia to fish there. While I was there, I had the opportunity to visit the ocean, and to watch the fishermen carry out their business. 

When we arrived, there were two groups of fishermen standing by the ocean shore, pulling in their nets. I was so excited because I had read about the fishermen in the Bible, but had never seen fishermen in real life using nets. Immediately, I asked them if I could take their picture. They gave me their permission, but only after I agreed to buy them something to drink. They explained that they had been there since 4 o’clock in the morning and the time was now about 2 o’clock in the afternoon.  

As I waited to see what they would catch, I enthusiastically offered to assist them in pulling the net from the ocean. I asked them how long it would take for the net to be completely pulled from the ocean. They replied that it would take another 2-3 hours because they extended the net into a relatively deep part of the ocean, where most fish are found.  

As I waited, the first group of fishermen finally brought in their net. Unfortunately, they had not caught anything. I felt really bad for them. These fishermen had been working for the past 12 hours and caught nothing. Without a catch, they would not be able to provide for their families, nor for the women in the market who depended on them to supply them with inventory. 

I thought maybe the second group would experience better fortunes, so I waited another hour and even helped to pull the net out of the ocean only to discover nothing but inedible deep-sea dwellers, and trash out of the ocean. I now could begin to understand how Peter and his friends would have felt, having worked all night without a catch, and also how Jesus felt. He had compassion for them and offered them some assistance.

I asked the fishermen why they had not caught anything. Their response was that they had not gone deep enough. These fishermen were the locals and did not have the machinery that would enable them to take their boats into the middle of the ocean to cast their nets and then retrieve their catch from the boat. As a result, they had to extend their nets from the shore into the ocean as far as they could, in hopes of getting the net as close to the deep as possible. These local fishermen lacked the capital to invest in the machinery that would enable them to go into the deep.  

Jesus’ instruction to Peter was that he should launch his net into the deep. Though Peter was discouraged and uncertain about this request, he nevertheless obeyed His instructions, and was greatly rewarded for doing so. “The deep” is a place that extends far below the surface and is potentially full of danger. Launching out into the deep requires double the effort, and a willingness to take greater risks. It requires you to move beyond your comfort zone and well beyond what you are accustomed to doing.

Like the fishermen in Sierra Leone, you may be currently experiencing either low productivity or no productivity. You may be wondering what else you can do to change the course of your business or your life. Nothing that you have tried has yielded results, and like those fishermen, the lack of success for your business affects not only you, but also your employees, your family, and your vendors.  

What else can you do? 

Unfortunately, it is during these stretching and challenging times when most entrepreneurs tend to pull back, play it safe, and protect themselves from further losses. However, this is the time when you should do the opposite. It is the time to take courage and launch out into the deep. Revise your strategy, increase your efforts, and give it all you have. If you continue to do what you have been doing, you will continue to get the same results – so you will have to resolve to do something differently.

The deep represents the unknown, and it is a place where you will require complete reliance on the Lord. Launching into the deep may require a greater spiritual commitment on your part, longer working hours, increasing your capital investment, or making reductions in certain areas. Whatever the implications for your business, you cannot afford to stay in shallow waters. The deep is where the best catch is found.

My prayer for you today is that if and when the LORD instructs you to do so, you will have the courage and the strength to launch out into the deep and that when you do, you will be rewarded by His hand.