When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken….Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” Luke 5:8-10

You’ve probably heard someone joke about putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable, usually by comically mispronouncing “syllable.” That’s how I feel about the story from Luke 5, in which Jesus asks Simon Peter to let him use his fishing boat; the Lord gave a morning lesson to a huge crowd on the shore. Then he tells Simon Peter to try again for a successful catch. The poor guy has had a long night with zero fish to show for it, and along comes a carpenter—not a fisherman—who tells him, “Give it one more shot.”

Honestly, Simon Peter’s response (“Um, we haven’t caught anything. All night. But if you want us to give it another go, I guess we will”) was generous, given the circumstances. So, it’s not surprising that we tend to focus on the huge slice of humble pie he gets when his boat is suddenly swamped with fish. But maybe the soon-to-be-disciples’ epiphany is actually the least important part of the story.

The part that deserves way more emphasis comes at the very end when Jesus says, “From now on, you will fish for people.” After a long night of not very-good-fishing followed by not-very-good-faith, those guys heard Jesus telling them, in essence, “You’re good enough to do my Father’s work.”

Most of us know the feeling of being broken, whether by trauma, grief, shame, or disappointment. Sometimes we feel like we’ll never be the same, maybe never be whole again. But this story is a reminder that God’s standards are not our standards: Jesus loves us and invites us to join God’s  work. We don’t have to feel whole before we can be loved. The Creator delights in us, always, simply because we are divinely made.