Neil Holm 

Today I read Luke 5: 1-11:

“Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.”

This passage spoke to me as someone who is beginning to think about retirement in a few years time. 

I imagined myself “on the shore”, out of the workplace, hanging up my nets and washing them — perhaps even thinking, “I have worked all night long but have caught nothing”. 

And then I hear, “Put out into the deep water!”  Put out into a place where you can’t touch the bottom, put out into the deep where dangers may lurk, where you are more exposed — let down your nets again — work on in expectation, work on with partners from the other boats, work on and fall in awe before our Lord.