FROM THE PASTOR

Doing It Differently

I was planning a large camp game of capture the flag. There were about 150 kids playing. How in the world were we going to be able to keep everyone honest as to what team they were on? Our confirmation group had not pre-planned being able to ask students to wear or bring a certain color shirt to help with this kind of thing. I looked around and saw a group of leaders cleaning paint brushes from an art activity from free time.  There! That’s it! Let’s use paint!

We had the leaders save the paint. As we set up the game, we used the two colors they had left. As kids left out the door after instructions, they stopped to have a cross painted on their forehead or cheek or a “Jesus fish” or whatever they wanted. It made it an easy way to identify which team they were on.

When we set out to play capture the flag, we had no idea that we would be using paint to tell which team someone was on. In the moment, we were called to do something differently that had a great impact, was fun, and the kids loved it! In future team games that week, they asked for paint again and again.

This week in our gospel, Jesus asks Simon to do things differently. He asks him to let down the net in the deep water; a place not typically fished or a place that had little luck overnight to catch the fish. Simon didn’t grumble, he just went with it, embracing doing something differently. And to his surprise, a night of scarcity led to a morning of abundance.  Sometimes it can be scary or daunting to do something differently instead of the way it has always been done. When have you been able to do something differently with success? When has it not worked out and what did you learn? Doing something differently helps us to expand our views, be creative, and inspire change. Here’s to trying to do something differently this week…

Blessings,
Pastor Sally