Going Fishing?
“Simon Peter said to them, ‘I am going fishing.’ They said to him, ‘We will go with you.’ They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing” (John 21:2-3).
Fishing has been a favorite pastime of mine for a while. When I was young, my dad would take my brother and me out to the intercoastal to fish under the bridges that connect the barrier islands to the mainland. Old photos (like the one above) prove that we were often quite successful. Nowadays, I’m more of a backyard fisherman, angling at nearby ponds and canals not far from home.
I’ve been on big fishing trips before, and it’s usually a lot of fun. But it’s nice to be able just to walk out the door with rod and reel in hand and minutes later be casting without a lot of preparation. To me it feels therapeutic to be regularly out in nature, driven by the trivial purpose of landing a fish.
And maybe that was what motivated Peter to go fishing in the Gospel reading excerpt above. Maybe he just needed a day to be out there on the water. But context reveals that it may have been more than that. It may have been lingering guilt and feelings of inadequacy that drove Peter back to the livelihood he had before Jesus called him.
After all, only days earlier, Peter had denied that he even knew Jesus. Yes, the resurrected Lord had returned and shown himself to the disciples, which brought amazement, relief and rejoicing. But it seems Peter still struggled with his vocation to be a fisher of men and a shepherd of God’s people in light of his failures. So he returned to that which he knew before.
Friends, do your failures and feelings of inadequacy ever have you wondering if God would be better off using someone else? Mine sometimes do.
But how wonderful that this passage doesn’t end with Peter's self doubts and misgivings! As we’ll see on Sunday, Jesus meets Peter where he’s at, restores him and calls him back to the work that he had for him to do – kingdom work that impacted countless lives.
God hasn’t given up on you, so don’t give up on yourself. Turn to Jesus and let him restore, inspire and empower you to experience and showcase his light and love to a world that so desperately needs it.
Fr. Darin+