Yesterday I hosted a group of ladies that I hold very dear. You have to understand the complexity of this situation. First, there was quite a bit of confusion when I initially set up this gathering and I gave them the wrong date. Then, I tried to overcompensate by accomodating the original date but some have heavy social schedules and that fell by the wayside. Finally, we got a date and just went with it. It was a true comedy of errors. Needless to say, I am not a social event planner. I also do not cook.
That is an understatement because I was helping my mother cook since I was eight. I just never developed a love for cooking and I am perfectly content with someone else doing it. So.....I called my sisters just hours before my gathering and asked what I should cook. Lasagna was the choice. No-not cook lasagna, bake the pre-prepared lasagna. I can not tell you the anxiety that I dealt with the entire afternoon. I was wringing my hands, pacing, wondering what to do. I knew I would make some mistake and ruin it!
I could not wait for my husband to get home because he is the cook in our family. Finally he arrived! I shared my panic with him and he said to me "Just follow the directions on the package." I thought....really? I did not have the confidence that it would work yet with all the confidence in the world he said "Just follow the directions..." My anxiety multiplied when my husband told me at 4:00 it needed two hours to cook and they were set to arrive at 6:00. As it cooked, my husband was calm and laid back and I was still pacing.
His job requires him to be "on call" and he has only been called out a hand full of times all year. You guessed it! He got called out. Again, the anxiety, the nerves, the panic. He wrote something down on a piece of paper and said "This is all you have to do...follow these directions." Of course I was thinking but what if I burn it, what it doesn't cook through, what if I ruin the night! "Just follow these directions....and you will be fine."
When Jesus called the first disciples, they had been out fishing all day and were finally coming in. Jesus got into one of the boats and taught the people from the boats. When he finished speaking he went to one of them and told them to put the boat into the deep water and let down the nets for a catch [directions], Of course, having been out all day and not having caught anything, the response was "Master, we've worked hard all day and havent caught anything...but because you say so, I will let down the nets." Luke 5:5
If we would only follow directions....we can't go wrong. In the end, my anxiety and panic was all wasted energy. The lasagna was great and the company was even better. I was confident in my husband's words...follow directions. Even though the disciples had been out all day, they were confident in Jesus' words and they submitted to his direction.
When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break so they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they filled both boats so full that they began to sink. Luke 5:6-7
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