Fishing on the Wrong Side of the Boat

Warning: Jesus talk.

I absolutely adore Joyce Meyer. She changed my life.

I had been going through a particularly hard time at work. I am a strong person. I am a good worker. But my situation had me in tears every day.

We are getting close to retirement, and I pep-talked myself every morning. You can do this. You can do this. You can do this. Don't stop now. Don't let your husband down. Then by afternoon I was sobbing, asking God, "Why are you doing this to me? What lesson am I supposed to be learning?"

On July 29, 2022 I went to joycemeyer.org to watch her show, which I do almost every morning. The title of the show was "God, What Should I Do?" During the show, Joyce told the story of Jesus and the disciples from John 21 where Peter had jumped in first to go fishing then the others followed. They came back with nothing. Then they met Jesus on the beach and he told them to go back out and fish on the other side of the boat. Spoiler alert: they caught fish.

I realized that what I had been doing seemed reasonable. Keep working at the job you know. But I wasn't catching any fish. I was miserable and unfulfilled, but I kept fishing off that side of the boat.

After seeing this show, I saw that I had been fishing on the wrong side of the boat. I believe I was becoming more and more miserable at this toxic job because God was pushing me out. I just hadn't been listening very well, I made the decision to quit my job, and felt peace for the first time in over a year.

Now, I'm not making as much money, but God has provided and we're doing just fine. I'm doing good work, I have my sanity, and I have more time to devote to charities and other activities.

No job is perfect. No marriage is perfect. You have to do a lot of praying before making a life decision. But there are two things I learned. 1) God will do what he has to do to move you on to the next thing. My heels were dug in because I had MY plan and God had to do some pretty hard pushing to get me to move. He wasn't trying to teach me a lesson. He was trying to get me to move. 2) If you are not at peace, maybe you are fishing off the wrong side of the boat.