What Do You See?
“’Come, follow me,’ Jesus said…”
Mark 1:17 (NIV)
I spent a quiet morning on the beach last week reading, thinking, and writing in my journal. Normally the Gulf Coast beaches are filled with crowds on summer vacation, but schools in Alabama begin this week, and the busy summer tourist season is winding down. This morning of solitude was truly a God-given gift to have some time alone to read and pray.
Sometime during my morning, I felt God nudging me saying, “What do you see, Donna?” I began writing what I saw:
Sunlight reflecting on the ocean water making it shimmer
Seagulls searching for ocean prey
Children happily playing in the surf and sand
Brightly colored beach umbrellas scattered along the seashore
Sugar white sand
Briefly stopping for a moment, the Holy Spirit challenged me again: “What else?” I picked up my pen and wrote:
Snow crabs darting into sand holes
Sea oats blowing in the wind
A lone boat in the distance
An older couple walking hand in hand
Sand buckets and shovels
Sandpiper tracks in the sand
Honestly, I thought my “What do you see?” observations might provide some useful material for a future blog post, but God had something else in mind.
Suddenly I remembered a story recorded in author Tim Keller’s book Hidden Christmas. Keller recalled once attending a Christian conference session on how to read the Bible and wrote:
“The speaker, Barbara Boyd, said to us, “Sit down for thirty minutes and write down at least thirty things you can learn from Mark 1:17,” which reads, “’Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will send you out to fish for people.’” Then she instructed us, “Don’t think after 10 minutes and four or five things written down that you’ve figured it out. Take the whole thirty minutes and try to get to thirty things observed.” So we sat silently and did as told. And indeed, after about ten minutes I was pretty sure that I’d seen everything there was to see in these fifteen words. I put my pen down and wanted to spend the rest of the time daydreaming, but everybody else looked like they were still working, so I picked up the pen and started pondering some more. Then I began to notice new things. If I imagined what the sentence would mean without one of its words, it was easier to assess what unique meaning it brought to the sentence. That gave me ability to get another two or three insights around each term. Then I tried to paraphrase the whole verse, putting it into my own words. That showed me more levels of meaning and implication that I had missed.
At the end of the thirty minutes, the teacher asked us to circle on our papers the best insight or the most life changing thing we had gotten out of the text. Then she said, “Okay, how many of you found this most incredible, life-changing thing in the first five minutes?” Nobody raised their hand. “Ten minutes?” Nobody raised their hand. “Fifteen minutes?” A few hands. “Twenty minutes?” A few more. “Twenty-five minutes?” Even more. That session changed my attitude toward the Bible and, indeed, my life.”
Turning to Mark 1:17 (NIV) I read: “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”
Accepting Barbara Boyd’s challenge, I spent thirty minutes applying my morning’s “What do you see?” question to Mark 1:17. Writing quickly, I noted that the word “Come” is an invitation while “Follow me” is a command. “I will make you fishers of men” is both a promise from Jesus and a purpose for us. Jesus’ call on his disciples remains the same for us today as it was for the Apostles over two thousand years ago: “Come, follow me.”
After ten minutes my observations, much like Keller’s, slowed down significantly. What else could I find in those words? Nashville Bible teacher Paige Brown says that God’s Word is never discovered; it is only revealed. I prayed a quick dart prayer, “Lord, show me!” and began writing again. Twenty minutes later I had two full pages of observations from Mark 1:17.
It’s been said that God’s Word is shallow enough for a child not to drown, but deep enough for an elephant to swim. We live in a microwave culture that expects instant results, but discipleship and following Jesus is a slower process that requires time. Each time we come to God’s Word we should be praying for eyes to see the truth that He has chosen to reveal and asking, “What do I see?”
“Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.”
Psalm 119:18 (NIV)