(John 21:1-17)…One of Jesus’ final meetings with some of the Disciples, after he rose again, was very similar to his first encounter with them. We see them our fishing and not catching any fish. Once again they listen to the instructions given by Christ and they have success with their fishing. Afterwards they all have breakfast with Christ on the shore. And we get to listen in on the restoration of Peter. Peter denied Christ three times, in turn Christ came back and restored Peter three times.
I look at my own life, and see how I fail so much, and I struggle with how I can just simply be forgiven. I think we can see that it’s not only a matter of being forgiven, but to be working to change your life so that you don’t fail in those same ways. When the Disciples listened to Christ they had a great catch. When we listen to the calling and instruction in our own lives “fruit” will be produced in our lives. We may be blessed, but even more we have opened ourselves to be a blessing to others. The amazing thing is that no matter how many times we mess up Christ forgives us. There are many days that I don’t feel I deserve that forgiveness. Then again, salvation is not based on what we deserve, we clearly know that what we deserve is death. I stand in awe at the grace, forgiveness, and love that God shows me.
The question that I need to ask myself today is “what specific actions am I going to take to make changes in my life today?”. Well, in one way I keep failing in being responsible, forgetting about things I’ve said I’m going to do. I need to begin taking steps to work on holding myself to following through on what I’ve said I can or will do. I need to set myself as many reminders as possible. I need to create myself task lists and always make sure that I look at them. I need to be up front and honest when I fail because I forgotten and not try to hide my failure. It would be good to enlist the help of others to make sure that I write things down so that I remember them. I want to be a person of character and responsibility, that is something that God has called us to be, especially me.
