Several years ago two of my brothers-in-law and me decided to go fishing.  Deb and I had only been married a little over three years and our son, Jeremy was still a baby.  We were camping, and as it happened a whole crowd of relatives found out about it and decided to show up for lunch.  It was hard to find a place to sit at our campsite and that included sitting on the ground.  Small children were running around all over the place and I just couldn’t take it anymore.  So me and my brothers-in-law, Ronnie and Elijah, decided to go fishing.  We rented a boat and rowed out onto the lake.  Finally some peace and quiet!

            But the place we had picked out didn’t seem to be a good spot.  None of the fish were biting.  So we decided to find another place.  The sun was boiling down hot and we felt like we were getting a bit well done so we decided to move again.  To make a long story a bit shorter we moved several times that day.  We rowed that boat all over the lake, going across waves made by speed boats that rocked us like a roller coaster.

            We spent most of the day out on that lake and finally decided that it was time to go back to camp.  We were sun-burned, tired and disappointed because we hadn’t caught any fish.   When we got back to camp our wives were fit to be tied (and for good reason).  We had left them to entertain that crowd and all those children while we spent our day on the lake.  As it turned out the only thing we caught that day was “heck!”

            In John 21:1-13 we read the incident of Peter and some of the other disciples that took place sometime after the resurrection of Jesus.  Remember that Peter was probably still feeling very guilty for denying Jesus on the night of His crucifixion.  I’m going to do a bit of interjecting here so don’t go looking for it in the scripture.  I can imagine Peter wondering what was going to happen now.  I believe that he must have felt like he had blown it all when he had denied Jesus.  How could Jesus ever depend on him again?  As he thought about these things, most likely wondering what he was going to do now, he suddenly remembered his old fishing days before he had met Christ.  It had been hard work but overall it was in his blood and he loved it.  So he spoke up to the other disciples and told them, “I’m going fishing.”

            I don’t think he meant this as a casual fishing excursion to pass the time.  I believe he was saying “There’s nothing more I can do here so I’m going to be a fisherman again.”  He felt that since he had let the Lord down that it was now time for him to make his own way.

            There are times when we feel like that yet today.  Have you ever felt like you let the Lord down?  If you’re anything like me I’d say the answer to that at question is “Yes.”  There are times we just simply fail.  When we do we feel useless, maybe like God doesn’t love us anymore, and perhaps even a bit mad at God because He didn’t stop us from failing Him.  We may be tempted to go back to our old way of life.  Or maybe we don’t want to make such a drastic change but we feel like we’ll watch from the sidelines for a while.

            I can’t count the number of times I’ve failed God and thought, “What a useless servant I am.  Why would God want to use anyone like me anyhow?”  I can hear some of you saying right now, “I resemble that remark.”

            While there’s certainly nothing wrong with getting away for a while or “going fishing” to think things through, God doesn’t for one minute want you to just turn and leave with no intentions of ever coming back.  Instead let’s remember what He did for Peter.  After that day Peter was changed forever.  He found out just how much the Lord really does love us and how often He is willing to forgive us when we fail Him.  He’s a great Lord to be serving.  Maybe we should just stay and fish for Him a bit longer.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.?  Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.