If You Say So

Luke 5: 5-6 “Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break.”

If you say so. How many times have you heard this? How many times have you said this? Often, ‘if you say so’, is a phrase used when one is giving in to something. It could be said in response to a request to do something you’d rather not do, like the dishes or shovel the snow. It could be said sarcastically to someone else’s belief in something unlikely, like winning the lottery or running a marathon. Or it could be said as a ‘yes’ to the beginning of a new and exciting adventure.

In the Bible, Jesus met a fisherman who was tired and discouraged by a long night of fishing with not one fish to show for it. When Jesus told him to go back on the lake and put down the nets again, the fisherman was understandably skeptical. He might have wondered why he should go out again after such a disappointing night just because Jesus said so. And yet he did, and he caught the biggest haul of fish of his life. Saying yes to Jesus changed that fisherman’s life and he became a dedicated life-long follower of Jesus. It all began with his willingness to take a risk and say, ‘if you say so’, with hope and faith that something amazing might happen.