Read: Luke 5:1-11
After teaching the crowds, Jesus asked Peter to go out to deeper waters and cast the nets, and the nets filled with fish to the breaking point! How does Peter respond?
Peter doesn’t respond, “Cool, we should start a fishing company!” For all the times we talk about Peter “not understanding”, Peter’s words in this first encounter are honest and self-aware: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
Like you and I, Peter is a sinner. In my imagination, I watch Jesus smile at him and in four powerful words, “Do not be afraid…,” Jesus invites Peter, all of us, to realize that we’re ready to follow Him, that our sinfulness will not prevent Him from seeking and bringing us to Himself.
In this story, we’re asked to join Peter, to put out “into the deep.” I think this scripture presents us with a great question for prayer and reflection, “What do we fear and what’s holding us back from putting out into the deep?”
Randy Hendersen, Director of Youth Ministry