I hope you'll go to church this weekend...but don't miss God's word in your weekday.

Being a preacher, I suppose I should tell you the most effective way to encounter the word of God is in a sermon on Sunday mornings.

It's not.

I mean it could be, but lived experience tells me God's word wants to get outside of Sunday, put on everyday clothes, and go through your week with you. The first time it grabbed hold of me? It wasn't on a Sunday morning. It was while carrying a broken heart alongside broken plans on a Friday night in high school two and a half decades ago.

That night was the first time I experienced the life-altering shift from carrying my Bible around...to my Bible carrying me around.

If you've longed for that kind of experience of the word of God, consider Luke 5:3-5. The aftermath of a failed night of fishing offers some ideas about where the Spirit of God may be prompting us with the word of God.

Surrendered boats

Jesus got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon... (Luke 5:3)

Notice how Simon didn't have to go to the temple to find Jesus here? Instead, Jesus showed up in one of Simon's daily spaces: a boat. Isn't that something? God himself shows up in Peter's everyday life, looks at the stuff of his everyday life, and says, "I could use that right there."

Have you considered the everyday stuff of life Jesus might access?

• A lunch break.

• Your home.

• First thoughts of the day.

• Your commute.

Identify these spaces, invite Jesus to use them, and watch them become pulpits before your very eyes.

Off the shore

...and asked him to put out a little from shore. (Luke 5:3)

We all have stable shore we walk around on. It's the place of solid footing, where we spend most of our time. It's where Peter's home was, where his people were, where the daily task of cleaning his nets was.

Getting distance from the shore was a holy separation - just Peter and the living Word of God - in a boat together.

The invitation to put out a little from shore is the reminder of what happens when we separate from our norms for a time. Not permanently, but momentarily. In his nudging us away to solitude from all we're used to - activities, schedules, faces, places - we return to them differently.

Deeper waters

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." (Luke 5:4)

It's interesting what this command goes against in Peter - and in us.

I can hear myself in the first part of Peter's response in Luke 5:5:

"Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything."

Simon's love and practice of his craft should lead him to say no. It's a statement that has seemingly sound reasons to stay in the shallow waters, back from the depths Jesus calls us to:

Our fatigue - Have you arrived at today tired? Perhaps you've worked hard all through the night - figuratively or literally - with little to show for it? The most tiring moments in life are when our strength won't suffice. And just beyond the end of our strength is the beginning of His.

Our failure - To do as Jesus commands in the places we've known failure is a difficult place to find confidence in - especially when his commands put us right back there. Let it deepen our hope and confidence in our Savior - who does all things well.

Our logic - Reason would say that in the face of disappointment, morning is the wrong time of day to fish. The fish are resting at the bottom. Why cast the net now? Furthermore, this goes against our attraction to ease. The net has been washed and pulled ashore. Throw it out again? And on top of all that, what respectable fisherman takes fishing advice from a carpenter?

Sound as these reasons may be, they overlook that the One who calls us deeper is the One who knows those depths, and the life he has for us there. Only he can elicit the response from each of us that Peter gave next:

But because you say so, I will let down the nets." (Luke 5:5).

So from this preacher: go to church Sunday. And come Monday, consider where the Spirit nudges you to surrender your boats, to get out from the shoreline, and to row deeper into Jesus' word, presence, and service.

When (not if) he fills your nets, you'll find yourself moving from one who carries their Bible around...to one who's carried around by it.

Nathan