Most fishermen are familiar with the experience of coming to the end of a day on the water and thinking to oneself, “Just one more cast.” It’s an especially poignant thought on those days one has been “skunked,” having caught nothing even though working at it all day.
Sometimes that “one more cast” is productive. After all, because it’s the last try for the day, you focus all your attention on placing the fly or lure just right, getting a perfect drift, putting the bait just where you think the fish should be. And every fiber in your arm is tuned to set the hook quickly if there should be a bite.
On those “skunked” days, however, that last cast is often just a fruitless flailing of the water one more time before giving up and going home, trying to believe the old saying that “a bad day of fishing is better than a good day of work.” I say all this to give us some sort of window into Peter’s mindset in our text from Luke 5:1-11, as Jesus asks him in verse 4 to put out into deep water and let down the nets again. Peter replies that they have been up all night (not a bad time for fishing if the moon and stars give enough light) and caught nothing, but at Jesus’ word they will try one more time.
The results of course are miraculous, the kind of catch any fisherman, whether fishing for business or pleasure, only dreams about. That one more try was all it took when it was Jesus asking for it.
I’m pretty willing to try one more cast when I’m fishing. What have I got to lose? But I wonder how often we are ready to give up when doing what our Lord asks of us? Are we willing to hopefully offer one more prayer for that chronically ill friend; to take another turn in some unappreciated volunteer role at church yet again; to really pay attention for the umpteenth time to a Scripture we’ve read all our lives; to offer forgiveness once more for an insult that just keeps getting repeated?
Specifically to the point of the text, are we willing to try, at our Lord’s bidding, still yet again to reach out and draw to Him those who have not yet received His grace? I think I find it easy to forego that “one more cast” when it comes to fishing for people. “O.K.,” I think, “she didn’t respond. Let’s move on and talk to someone else.” But maybe what Jesus asks of me is not to cover a lot of water, hoping to find eager fish elsewhere, but to faithfully keep going back to those who seem unresponsive, consistently showing them His love and grace.
May our Lord Jesus meet us in our boats and give us many opportunities to make one more cast for Him.