Don't Go There.

Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. (John 21:1-3)

Early in Jesus’s ministry, Jesus had called Peter away from the world of commercial fishing. But after the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and even after having had personal encounters with the resurrected Christ, Peter made an astonishing decision: I’m going back to what Jesus told me to leave.

So Peter, and some of the other disciples, went fishing that night. It seemed to be a great idea. After all, Peter had been a professional in the trade. He knew the best time to go fishing is at night. And, in a context where they feared for their lives, it was certainly safer for the men to go out at night instead of broad daylight. So they went. They fished. They caught nothing.

I wonder if you and I are in this story.

I wonder if we, even after having encountered the resurrected Christ, still hold in our hearts a desire to do our own thing and make our own way. We have a problem of sorts: we are gifted. We have some things that we can do very well, and we can enjoy the accolades of men. Some of these things will even make us money, and we might even give the money to God’s work. But if that thing we do well is in opposition to the calling God has placed on our lives, then we can be sure that we, like the disciples of old, will find ourselves “catching nothing” for our extended hours of effort.

Yes, we have experienced crisis and sorrow and even death, whether of persons or of dreams. And yes, in our anguish Jesus has appeared to us, more than once, to assure us of His risen life in us. And yes, for some of us our crisis is tempting us to step away from our calling and instead do something that is expedient, something that we do with excellence, something to alleviate our inner fears... something that is no longer part of God’s script for our life-play. Today, I pray that we will not give in to that temptation.

Christ, the Desire of Nations, is risen! May all other desires be obscured by His Light.