The Catch

I love today’s Gospel passage, and not just because I love a good fish fry.

I love it because I am Peter. Over and over again, I am Peter, standing here exhausted because I relied on my own abilities, and it got me nowhere. I’m ready to call it quits. I’m ready to say it’s too hard. And here comes Jesus, asking me to lower my net. To keep trying.

And I try to talk sense into him. “It’s not going to work, God,” I insist. “I’ve been trying.”

“You’ve been trying,” Jesus agrees. “But you haven’t asked for my help yet.”

What does it mean to lower your net? It sounds so simple and so easy, but it takes a great deal of humility and trust. I think I’m the expert on my own life, the captain of my own ship. Peter probably thought so, too — he was the fisherman, after all. Why would a fisherman listen to a carpenter on matters of fishing?

Lowering your net means giving God control and letting yourself be changed by what He chooses to show you.

It means to listen to God’s instructions, even when you don’t understand them, even when you find them frustrating. It means to keep trying the hard thing that you know is the right thing, even when it hasn’t born much fruit. It means to keep loving the person who is making life hard on you, even when all you want to do is give into feelings of bitterness and distrust.

If we would only lower our nets, the catch would astound us.

©LPi