Jose Luis Avenado Jose Luis was born in Viña del Mar, Chile. He completed his Honors Bachelor studies in Theology at the Facultad Teologica Evangelica in Santiago, Chile and his Licentiate in Biblical Studies at the Universidad Biblica Latinoamericana in San Jose, Costa Rica. Currently Jose Luis is part of a pastoral team of a Hispanic ministry of the ELCA in the city of Des Moines, Iowa, USA.

Peter, the experienced fisherman, went out that night to fish, and with him some other disciples, but according to what the text tells us (vs. 3), they didn’t catch anything that night. However, just after daybreak, and even though the scene was still the same – the same lake, the same boat, the same men – all was about to change; Jesus was now with them, and at his order (vs. 6) they took in a large quantity of fish. (John 21: 1-14 Adapted from the Biblia de Jerusalen, in Spanish).

If I pause for a moment and think about my journey of faith during all of these years, I can relate fully to this experience the disciples had on the lake with the Resurrected Jesus, and not just on one occasion, but on several occasions.

I was born into a Christian home, my late father was a Lutheran Pastor and the first missionary in Chile of the IELCHI (Iglesia Evangélica Luterana en Chile), and although in my childhood practically all of my experiences in life had to do with ecclesiastical activities and evangelical vocabulary, or in other words, “the church world.”

It wasn’t until I was 20 years old that I made a conscious and responsible commitment to my faith. It was thus that I made the decision to enter a theological faculty, and from then on I have spent all of these years working as a professor of theology in various theological institutions in my country, Chile, while still being involved in pastoral work.

Now then, the same thing happened to me as with many young people who were born into a Christian home, especially a pastoral home. The overexposure to ecclesiastical activities, and the familiarity with liturgical formulas and evangelical vocabulary exhausted me, and I wanted to escape from everything that was related to the church. Of course, it wasn’t that I didn’t need God; on the contrary! I needed Him more than anything in the world, but I couldn’t find Him.

Like the disciples on that night who could not catch any fish, I was throwing out my nets into the waters of life, in search of something that could bring peace to my restless spirit, something that could refresh my heart dried out by the knocks of life, but time after time my nets came back empty, and my existential void grew more intense.

I was 20 years old, then, when I returned to pass once again through the pages of my Bible, the Bible of my childhood. Of course, I did not hear any audible voice, I did not experience a celestial vision, what is more I did not even feel any emotions when I began my first readings. However, with the passing of time I knew, with that sure unshakeable faith of the believer, that the Resurrected Jesus came to meet me in each new reading, calling me to follow Him, inviting me to throw out the nets of my life, now not by my own efforts or with my human wisdom, rather by the power of His Word.

The result was a great catch, not of fish, but of a life in which I began to understand the purpose of God, His call, His ways. Every human being has been created with a void, and this void is in the shape of God. We can try to fill it with many things, from things that are openly sinful to those that are socially acceptable, but as long as we do not fill it with God, that void will become deeper and more intense all the time.

In conclusion, this story has not finished. Every day I discover that when I throw out my nets by my own effort, I obtain nothing, whether it has to do with my work in the church, or with my own family, or my own life. But when I listen to the voice of the Master and I obey, the catch is always abundant.

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