Monday, April 7, 2014

Fishing

This is the time of the year when you might see me driving east after work toward Ft. Gaines.  Fishing season is in full force and I have already bagged a few bass (some have made it to the frying pan).  This year I had a different kind of fishing story.  Usually these stories are about the monstrous fish that were hooked but lost due to broken line or some other malfunction that wasn't my fault.  This year's story is different.  It is about how I caught a bass while riding my bicycle.

You might have seen me riding my bike through town, but one day a few weeks back I took the bicycle and my kayak to Ft. Gaines.  I placed the kayak in the water not too far from the dam and caught a few small fish along the bank.  I got tired of fishing so I put the kayak in the truck and got on the bike.  I rode along the Corps of Engineers area and was enjoying the ride when I looked down at the lake.  In a corner of the cove I saw a good sized bass swimming along the bank.  I wondered ... "Can I make it back to the truck, drive up here and get my fishing rod before the bass leaves the area?"  I did just that and caught that bass on the third cast ... he was in the frying pan that evening.

As I thought about how I caught the biggest fish of my season while doing something totally non-fishing oriented, I realized there was a lesson here.  When we are doing another kind of fishing (for people) we might have our plan played out in our mind.  A person will come up to us and ask, "What can I do to be saved?"  The truth is, that almost never happens, even to preachers.  Usually the opportunities to witness to someone about Christ come at inconvenient times when we are doing something else.  1 Peter 3:15 says ... "And if someone asks you about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it."  Always includes the times you are busy, the times you are distracted and the times when you really don't feel like it.  On my fishing trip, I could have said, "I am riding ... not fishing."  That would have been true but I would have missed the blessing of the big catch.  How about you ... do you realize that our number one vocation (as Christians) is fishing?  Are you ready to tell about your Christian hope in the midst of everyday life (God happens while life happens)?  Do you realize that our congregation has 234 evangelists (fisher-people), all with a story of hope, grace and love from our Savior?  What if all of us realized that every day is a fishing expedition, even when we are riding our bikes?  Randy

No comments:

Post a Comment