The Bible has a good story for Monday morning…or any morning when getting up and going to work is less than thrilling. It’s from John 21 and happened not long after Easter. Peter told some other disciples, “I’m going out to fish,” and they went with him. They fished all night but caught nothing. So when early morning came, they must have been weary, just as we sometimes wake up not really rested because we’re anxious about the day ahead. Coming toward shore, a stranger calls and asks if they’ve caught anything. “No.” He calls back, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” I wonder how I would have taken to that unsolicited advice.
Timothy Dudley-Smith has put the rest of the story into a hymn. “So they cast, and all their heaving cannot haul their catch aboard; John in wonder turn, perceiving, cries aloud, ‘It is the Lord!’ Peter waits for nothing more, plunges in to swim ashore.”
And then Mr. Smith draws the moral. “Christ is risen! Grief and sighing, sins and sorrows, fall behind; fear and failure, doubt, denying, full and free forgiveness find. All the soul’s dark night is past, morning breaks in joy at last.
“Morning breaks, and Jesus meets us, feeds and comfort, pardons still; As His faithful friends He greets us, partners of His work and will. All our days, on every shore, Christ is ours forevermore!” (Lutheran Service Book, 485)
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