“Drop Your Nets and Follow Me”

Once upon a time, Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, when he came upon Peter and Andrew casting their nets into the sea.

Peter and Andrew were putting out some real good vibrations, so Jesus said, “Hey, dudes, follow me and I’ll show you fishing like you’ve never even dreamed of!”

“Sounds good!” Peter and Andrew replied, so they immediately left their nets and followed Jesus. This is known as “striking while the iron is hot.”

Peter and Andrew were performing a highly symbolic action. Their nets were symbolic of the spiderweb of beliefs, expectations and limitations that we habitually strangle our lives and destinies with. Dropping their nets and following Jesus was symbolic of their leaving their limitations behind so that their destinies could unfold in an optimal way.

We have an enormous amount of teaching and healing to offer each other if we but release our destinies, but it’s really not necessary to “follow” anybody else—God is, after all, the ultimate guru. And God is, after all, closer to us than our own breathing.

“Drop your nets and follow me” really means, “Drop your limitations and follow your own heart.” This of course implies that one has done the necessary spiritual work so that one’s heart has become reasonably free of selfishness, is open to the light and love of God, and is able to be a pure and uncorrupted expression of the Holy Spirit.

“Dropping your nets” often involves making significant changes: leaving an unfulfilling relationship, quitting a nowhere job, moving to a new location, etc. Such changes can often involve extreme pain and fear—the fire of purification can burn long and deep. But it’s an effective way to learn true humility.

I have heard it said that our lives are always, at all times, in divine order. Perhaps, but unfortunately it’s all too easy for us to totally lose awareness of our divine nature. Jesus said, “Narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction.” It is very easy, but not necessarily very fun, to live a life of perpetual unfulfillment or semi-fulfillment. This is called “limbo,” and when one is under the grip of limbo, nothing seems to happen except the same old sterile routine.

Now, if we learn something from this limbo, and use this knowledge to transform our thinking and behavior so that our destinies once again come alive, then our limbo experience was, indeed, in divine order—insofar as we learned something from it. But limbo for its own sake, if we remain in an unconscious and apathetic state, is a tragic waste of life.

It’s our choice. It’s our responsibility to learn—or not—from our experiences. Freedom is like having a razor-sharp, double-edged sword handed to us blade first.

If we learn from our experiences, if we drop our old nets, if we are willing to endure the agonies of purification, then we will enter once again into our true destinies, the “Kingdom of Heaven.” “Coincidences,” synchronicities, and omens will abound in our lives. We are once again truly alive; the entire universe once again comes alive with meaning and purpose. The slightest whisper of the wind through the grass triggers ancient memories within us. The brown-eyed doe watching us on the mountaintop brings us a message from the Earth Mother herself. The rainbow at dawn over the Organ Mountains is an omen of the year to come. The pillar of fire in the west after sunset is for us alone. The rocks and stars and trees sing their perpetual song of timeless joy.

Such a life. Not a bad beginning. Thank you, Great Spirit. They don’t call it “the power and the glory” for nothing.