We were hacking through blackberry bushes, cutting down thorny Russian olive trees, and feeding branches into a powerful chipper. We were among several hundred volunteers who have put in over 20,000 manhours helping the City of Kennewick develop the Zintel Canyon Greenway.

The new chipper was doing great. The operator claimed it could chew up a railroad tie. But then some of the volunteers began feeding berry vines into the chipper.

Soon the chipper clogged up, and we were delayed half an hour while it was cleaned out.

It occurred to me how like that chipper many of us Christians are. We proclaim boldly that we would die for the Lord … but then we get bogged down in the vines of life.

Simon and his partners had fished all night in vain when the Savior called out to throw their net on the other side of their boat. They caught so many fish there that they needed help to drag the net ashore.

It was then that Jesus first challenged Peter to leave his nets and to become a fisher of men. And Peter did follow Jesus throughout his three-year mission … until the night of Jesus’ arrest.

When Jesus prophesied that he would be abandoned by his disciples, Peter promised it would not happen. "Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee" (Matthew 26:31-38).

But Peter did deny him that very night as he watched Jesus’ trial from afar. It seemed like such a small thing to avoid accusations and ridicule by denying that he knew Jesus. But as the cock crowed, Peter remembered his promise too late, and he went out and wept bitterly (Matt. 26:67-75).

Even after Christ’s resurrection, Peter continued to condemn himself for being so weak, and he seemed confused as what he should do. So he went back to what he had done most of his life.

"I go a fishing," he told the other disciples, and Thomas, Nathanael, James and John went with him.

They fished all night to no avail until someone called out from shore to cast their net on the other side of the boat, where the net was quickly filled with fish.

Peter remembered the same thing happening three years earlier, and he realized it was the Savior standing on shore. Indeed, there the disciples found the Lord with fish already cooking over a fire.

After dinner, Jesus walked apart with Peter. Perhaps motioning back to the fish, Jesus asked: "Lovest thou me more than these?"

Peter replied: "Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee." Jesus said, "Feed my lambs" (John 21:1-19).

Jesus was telling Peter to do the menial day-in, day-out job of being a disciple and caring for others more than himself. He challenged Peter not to get bogged down in the vines and thorns of life but to stay true to his discipleship.

Three times he asked Peter, "Lovest thou me?"

Filled with anxiety, Peter finally cried: "Lord, though knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee."

Jesus gave his final challenge: "Feed my sheep."

And this time Peter succeeded where before he had failed. He provided the church’s day-in-and-day-out leadership for many years after Jesus’ departure. And this time he did not back down when Jewish leaders threatened, tortured and ridiculed him.

When his time came, he finally fulfilled his earlier promise to follow Jesus even unto death as a martyr for the church.

Christian discipleship is made up of many challenges – some great and some very subtle.

They were the subtle ones that Jesus warned about when he compared the Gospel to seeds cast about by a farmer. "And some fell among thorns [like those in Zintel Canyon]; and the thorns sprung up and choked them" (Matt. 13:7).

May we not be unfruitful disciples but each day share our light and our love with everyone around us, no matter how spiritually insignificant the setting may seem.

For it is when we’re out of church and among the thorns that we truly answer the Lord with out actions. "Lovest thou me?"