Go Away from Me, Lord

Lake Geneva Walking Path

               Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, ²he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. ³He 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. ⁴When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ ⁵Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ ⁶When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. ⁷So they signaled 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. ⁸But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ ⁹For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; ¹⁰and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ ¹¹When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.  Luke 5:1-11

It had been a really, long night

We had cast our nets out over and over

Nothing, not one fish

Nothing to show for our labor

We pulled to shore ready to give up

This man asked me to take him out

He wanted to talk to the crowd

He spoke about God

I don’t know if I ever heard about God like that before.

I know he was quoting scripture,

But it just felt different

New

He spoke about a God who forgives anything

A God who loves the broken, the lost, the last

He said that God wanted the hungry to be fed, the blind to see,

the prisoners to be released, the oppressed to be set free

         

He asked us to pull out farther

He said to drop our nets

I told him the time to catch fish was long past

He nudged us to put are nets in the water

So we did

And then we felt the weight

It was so heavy I called to my partners to come help

There were so many fish

More fish than we have ever caught in a week

I turned to look at him

I dropped to my knees before him

How could he want anything to do with me

I have made so many mistakes

I have done things I shouldn’t have

If only he knew the real me

I looked up and prayed:

Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.

Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.

Standing in the Need of Prayer