There’s an exhibit in Israel that features a boat that fishermen used two thousand years ago in the Sea of Galilee. It measures twenty-seven feet long by seven and a half feet wide.

That’s important to this story.

In Matthew 28, the resurrected Jesus told His disciples He would meet them on a mountain in Galilee. John 21 says that seven of them were there waiting for Him. Then Peter announced that he was going fishing. He'd probably been waiting on the hill for some time, and it must have seemed to him like Jesus was going to be a no-show that day.

You can wait for something passively or you can wait actively. Peter was a man of action—he would wait, but while he waited, he was going to do something. He was going to stay occupied. After all, Jesus did say, "Occupy till I come" (Luke 19:13, KJV).

When I came to faith in Christ, my friends thought I was so unspiritual when I told them I was going to college. "Why? Jesus is coming back!" But I saw going to college as "occupying until He comes." Jesus doesn't want us to be lazy while we're waiting for Him to return, but to stay busy.

The disciples fished all night but had nothing to show for it. Morning came, and they saw a man on the shore. But the disciples did not yet recognize that it was Jesus. "Then Jesus said to them, 'Children, have you any food?' They answered Him, 'No.' And He said to them, 'Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some'" (see John 21:3-6).

Remember, the right side of the boat was only seven and a half feet from the left side. When Jesus said, "Move your net to the other side," it probably didn't make much sense. But what did they have to lose? They hadn't caught anything. "So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish" (v. 6).

There's a huge difference between doing something on your own and doing something at the leading of the Lord. The difference is results.

If you aren't serving at the direction of the Spirit, you're going to say the same thing the disciples did: I caught nothing. I know many people who work hard in service to the Lord. They're competent. They're diligent. Yet they walk away saying, "I caught nothing."

It takes more than diligence or competence. It requires obedience—listening to where He wants you to go and how He wants you to serve.

The difference between the disciples' success and failure was the width of the boat. "What difference does it make to put my net here or seven and a half feet away?" Only that Jesus said to put it there. Are you going to argue about it, or are you going to move your net and catch something?

You can be competent. You can be diligent. But it's best to begin with obedience. Go where God wants you to go. Do what He's called you to do. Operate in the gifts He has poured into your life—and enjoy it.

And enjoy the results.