02082022 –
This is a true story. You cannot make this stuff up. You may remember hearing about it. The story itself goes back in time to the year 1982. The same year as the World Series between the Brewers and the Cardinals. We lost!
Talk about the crazy times in which we are living…
A Southern California newspaper article told about a Truck driver Larry Walters, 33, who had a lifelong dream “to fly.”
He tried to join the Air Force but because of “poor eyesight” he was turned down.
One day he was sitting in a lawn chair in his backyard and had an idea. He purchased 45 weather balloons and several tanks of helium. He attached the balloons to his lawn chair, anchored the chair to the bumper of his jeep, and inflated the balloons with helium, one by one.
He packed some sandwiches, drinks, and loaded BB gun, sat in the lawn chair and cut the anchor cord.
I am still not sure, what he was thinking!
His plan was to float slowly up a few feet and then “gently return by popping a few balloons.” Yeah, right!
But when he cut the anchor cord he shot up quickly and leveled off at 11,000 feet.
At that height he couldn’t risk deflating “any balloons” for fear of unbalancing his load and plummeting back to land.
He really experienced flying, floating around for some 14 hours. The problem was he had NO IDEA on “how to get down.” MINOR DETAILS!
Eventually he drifted into the approach corridor for Los Angeles International Airport.
A Pam Am Pilot radioed the tower and said, “I just passed a guy in a lawn chair at 11,000 feet with a gun in his lap.”
As dusk fell “the winds shifted” and Larry began to drift out to sea.
The US Navy dispatched a helicopter, dropped a rescue line, and hauled him to safety. As soon as Larry got back on the ground he was arrested. A reported asked, “Sir, why did you do that?” Larry response was, “Well, you just can’t sit there.”
None of us want to just sit around in a lawn chair, doing nothing. We all want our lives to count for something.
Everyone wants to find “meaningful work.” Work they enjoy and work that is productive.
The fisherman in our gospel experienced a night of “non-productivity.” They had fished all night and caught nothing. We are not told how many nights were like that!
There are many people who see their job as being a dead end street going nowhere.
Many commuters begrudge the 83,000 hours their jobs take from their lives.
Surveys of the “Americans work force” reveal how many see their work:
One third of Americans say they hate their job. Two – thirds believe they are working in the wrong career. Others find employment success, but not satisfying. Most suicides occur on Sunday nights. Most heart attacks occur on Monday mornings. Life is great, if you don’t weaken!
Last year in 2021 68.9 million workers quit their jobs. 47.4 million were voluntary quits…the rest I assume were not.
While millions of workers left jobs for cash incentives, better pay or better benefits, people also left the labor market to care for children or for elderly relatives during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, “older workers” retired early either because “they could” or because “age discrimination” forced them out of the labor market completely.
The good news was 75.3 million were hired last year for a net gain of 6.4 million. That’s crazy stuff, too!
So the scriptures tell us the fishermen did not want to go back out fishing. It probably had been a long night. They were tired. They were smelly. They probably just wanted to go to bed.
But at the word of Jesus, they went back out. The catch of fish was unbelievable!
How did he do that? How did he know where to drop the nets?
Just who was this guy? It was almost downright, spooky!
FISH don’t get caught during the daylight hours they see the nets coming…and they swim away…everyone knows that…
Except for this rabbi, this teacher, this healer…WHO IS HE? Looking at the two boats that were busting at the seams with fish…the only proper response seemed to be to drop to the knees and say, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
Everyone was amazed and wondered and were totally confused!
And just like the 47.4 million (last year in 2021) they just got up and quit their jobs on the spot – and they didn’t look back.
And it’s kind of a big thing – because the scriptures go out of their way to say, they left everything, and followed him.
I guess the fish were free to anyone who wanted them…and the boats and nets, as well. Amen.