Peter's Emotional Rollercoaster or The Cycle of Conversion

After days of wild emotions from borderline despair and sorrow to ecstatic exultation, Peter simply says, "I'm going fishing." I use to consider this a way of escaping, or perhaps denial of his responsibilities. Now, however, I see it with much more generous - even admiring - eyes.

Peter didn't know what to do. Just as we sometimes (more often then not perhaps) don't know what to do. We are faced with many good things before us, mysteries unraveling, relationships shifting, challenges surfacing, and yet we can't quite figure out what it is that we are suppose to be doing. Sometimes this causes a fear that cements us in our tracks, and prevents us from going forward. Not so in the case of Peter. He couldn't be sure, but he knew he had to wrap his mind around things. 

He returned to where he first met the Lord, where Jesus had worked miracles, and where his faith had been tested. He returned to the task that was not so demanding, almost second nature, that would allow him to think and pray while he kept active. Peter was human, and he needed to clear his head. The Sea of Tiberius
 was just the place. 

We know that Peter didn't just revert to his old self, because when asked to lower the net to another side, he did so without hesitation. When he realized that it was the Lord, he did not hesitate or play bold by asking to walk on water. He simply swam, three hundred feet, and was happy to be with Christ. Peter gave of what little he had, the fish, which like everything came from and returned to Jesus. Peter was truly a new man in Christ. 

The roller-coaster ride of emotion was subsiding. Peter was re-living or fulfilling his call and conversion. Only one thing was left undone - his denials. Soon.