Fishing.
My thoughts right now go back to when I was a young man fishing. Sometimes I would choose a spot in the river and I soon would find out that it wasn’t yielding what I thought it should. I was looking to get a Northern or Walleye, but instead all I got were Bullheads or Carp. The next thing I had to ask myself was, “Am I using the right bait?” Sometimes I would change the lure and I found that solved the problem. At other times it did not change a thing, so I had to make a decision, “Was I going to stay in the same place and catch fish I didn’t want, or go some where else?”
During these moments of enlightenment, I came to see that I had been using the wrong lures and/or I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I soon learned that there were variables to consider in fishing, “You have to look at the whole picture sometimes in determining whether something is working or not.”
Life is like fishing many times. We sometimes find that, we as well, are in the wrong location, doing the wrong thing, and getting results that we don’t want.
Christ has helped me to see in many areas of my life, that I too was fishing in the wrong locations and getting what I didn’t want. Sometimes I chose not to listen, because I didn’t want to go his way, or I didn’t want to change. I chose my own direction and I settled for fish that were much less than what I could have had. Jesus waited for me in my desperate attempts when I wanted to go my own way. He waited until I was willing to surrender and decide that I didn’t know the best place to fish. After a time though, of going my own way, I decided to listen to his voice, read his word, and it was then that he guided me to the place that he had chosen for me all along, and it was better than I had ever imagined.
We find in Luke, chapter 5 a similar story. One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him, so Jesus stepped into a nearby boat. It belonged to Peter. After speaking awhile, he glanced over at Peter and his friends who looked discouraged and tired, and he told Peter to do something, “Peter, put out your nets on the other side of the boat.” They looked at him, I imagine with some suspicion and perhaps a lot of skepticism. Peter then said to Jesus, “We have fished all night and have caught nothing.” Peter had gotten to the end of his rope with hope. In spite of Peter’s doubt, he went against his natural inclinations and threw out the nets on the other side of the boat. The catch was so big that it started to tear his nets. Peter at once knew whom he was looking at, a man who knew how to fish, and someone who could do something that he himself tried with all his skill and might and could not do, that of catching fish. Not only did he catch fish, but the right kind as well. I know that a fisherman would not get excited over fish that were useless to eat.
Peter knew in his heart at that time that he had been fishing in all the wrong areas of his life. He wanted what this fisherman had to offer him, a fulfilled life. Jesus reached out to Peter and said, “Come, I will make you a fisher of men!” Jesus had a plan for Peter, and he has one for you as well. A life that is complete and fulfilling.
My thoughts right now go back to when I was a young man fishing. Sometimes I would choose a spot in the river and I soon would find out that it wasn’t yielding what I thought it should. I was looking to get a Northern or Walleye, but instead all I got were Bullheads or Carp. The next thing I had to ask myself was, “Am I using the right bait?” Sometimes I would change the lure and I found that solved the problem. At other times it did not change a thing, so I had to make a decision, “Was I going to stay in the same place and catch fish I didn’t want, or go some where else?”
Christ has helped me to see in many areas of my life, that I too was fishing in the wrong locations and getting what I didn’t want. Sometimes I chose not to listen, because I didn’t want to go his way, or I didn’t want to change. I chose my own direction and I settled for fish that were much less than what I could have had. Jesus waited for me in my desperate attempts when I wanted to go my own way. He waited until I was willing to surrender and decide that I didn’t know the best place to fish. After a time though, of going my own way, I decided to listen to his voice, read his word, and it was then that he guided me to the place that he had chosen for me all along, and it was better than I had ever imagined.
We find in Luke, chapter 5 a similar story. One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him, so Jesus stepped into a nearby boat. It belonged to Peter. After speaking awhile, he glanced over at Peter and his friends who looked discouraged and tired, and he told Peter to do something, “Peter, put out your nets on the other side of the boat.” They looked at him, I imagine with some suspicion and perhaps a lot of skepticism. Peter then said to Jesus, “We have fished all night and have caught nothing.” Peter had gotten to the end of his rope with hope. In spite of Peter’s doubt, he went against his natural inclinations and threw out the nets on the other side of the boat. The catch was so big that it started to tear his nets. Peter at once knew whom he was looking at, a man who knew how to fish, and someone who could do something that he himself tried with all his skill and might and could not do, that of catching fish. Not only did he catch fish, but the right kind as well. I know that a fisherman would not get excited over fish that were useless to eat.
Peter knew in his heart at that time that he had been fishing in all the wrong areas of his life. He wanted what this fisherman had to offer him, a fulfilled life. Jesus reached out to Peter and said, “Come, I will make you a fisher of men!” Jesus had a plan for Peter, and he has one for you as well. A life that is complete and fulfilling.
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