“Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.” (Luke 5:5)

I come from a long line of watermen. Many of the men in my mother’s family were fishers, oystermen, crabbers, boat builders, or a combination of all of four. My husband began his career as a commercial crabber at the age of eleven, as an apprentice on his uncle’s boat. Though his ultimate full-time career became the law, he still has his commercial license and crabs multiple times a week during the season. This allows us a little spending money, family vacations, and this year, a new freezer and woodstove!

One of our favorite things to do in the entire world is invite friends and family to go crabbing and then feast on our catch. Most of the time, we’re able to haul in enough crabs to feed everyone. Some weeks, we know that won’t be possible. This year, crabs didn’t really start running in our area until a few weeks ago. That meant, July 4^th week, Ken was out every morning just in case our group didn’t catch enough on the Fourth.

Casting Even When in Doubt

Sometimes the crabs are biting, and sometimes they aren’t. We can say the same about our family’s experiences with fishing. Sometimes the fish bite, and sometimes they don’t. However, Ken is the expert, and if we aren’t doing well in one creek, he pulls up the lines and moves everything to another. Usually, this changes our luck, but not always.

I can’t imagine anyone, especially a stranger to crabbing, coming into our boat and telling Ken to move his lines to another spot and try again. How dare they? Ken’s been crabbing these creeks for almost fifty years. Nobody would ever question his knowledge.

So I can imagine how Peter felt when Jesus told him to go deeper and cast his nets, yet Peter didn’t argue. Perhaps he was listening to Jesus as he was washing his nets. Maybe he heard something trustworthy in what this stranger was saying. Obviously, Peter didn’t argue when Jesus stepped into his boat and asked to be taken offshore. Of course, Peter’s brother, Andrew, may have been giving Peter the look that told Peter this was the man Andrew called the Messiah. Whatever his reasoning, Peter obeyed.

Jesus Enters Our Boats

I’ve often heard it said that Jesus didn’t ask Peter if He could enter his boat, and He doesn’t ask us either. Jesus enters our lives whether we want Him to or not. The question for us is do we welcome Him into vessels? When Jesus climbs into our boats with us, do we shoo Him away, or do we listen to what He has to say? Do we scoff at His commands, or do we obey?

Peter had his faults. He was rash, prone to anger, shortsighted in the ways of God, and often spoke without thinking. Yet he obeyed Jesus without question. He even stated the obvious — they had already been fishing all night and caught nothing — but didn’t argue against trying again.

Fishers of Others

We’re allowed to question God. We’re allowed to wonder how something can possibly happen when the odds are against it. We can even let God know our annoyance or displeasure in the present circumstance we may be in. God can handle that! He knows what it’s like to be frustrated. How many times was He irritated by the Apostles’ lack of faith? What He wants is for us is, when we are annoyed, frustrated, even angry, to obey Him anyway.

That is trust. Profound trust.

Doing the will of God, following His commands, walking the path He has chosen for us are acts of trust. Like Peter, we must put aside our own feelings and follow Jesus out into the deeper water. It’s there that we will haul in the greatest catch and follow Jesus’ final command — to become fishers of others.

My daughter, know that you give Me greater glory by a single act of obedience than by long prayers and mortifications. (Saint Faustina, Divine Mercy in my Soul)

Copyright 2025 Amy Schisler
Photos copyright 2025 Amy Schisler, all rights reserved.