Throughout the gospels, we see a common trajectory. Various characters in diverse circumstances all encounter Jesus and are sent out to serve others.
The disciples in Luke 5 have been listening to Jesus. They have been exposed to the truth about who He is. It is an intoxicating place to be. Peter, in another passage, will ask to build three shelters for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah at the Mount of Transfiguration.
We long for these mountains, the place where we can go and sit at the feet of Jesus, to consume His peace and His love, to be comforted by His presence.
But that is only the first half of the trajectory. Jesus told the disciples He will send them out to “fish for people”. He asks them to cast their nets into the deep water for a huge haul.
Our mountaintop experiences are not just about our own joy. They are equipping stations, checkpoints along the journey. We are taught so we might teach. We are served so we might serve. And we are loved so that we might love. We are caught so we might help catch.
We are not simply consumers of God’s love, we are participants in it. If we obsess over the mountains, we will miss out on what God is calling us into. If we refuse to cast our nets, to descend the mountains and serve others, we are shirking our calling and all but wasting the experience of the mountaintops.