It was a cold Friday morning. As a bi-vocational pastor, Friday was my day off. The kids were in school & my wife was at work. I like to do two things on my day off: fish and hunt. Hunting season wasn’t in so I headed to the Suwanee river. I don’t have a boat so I’d be fishing off the bank. I would get to the river by passing through a church members private property and then driving down a trail in the woods. My spot was very secluded and very quiet. Just the way I like it.
My wife had already told me I shouldn’t go fishing. She is a city girl. She believes that one day I will get eaten by some wild animal or killed by an escape convict hiding in the woods. Plus she told me it was too cold and I would get sick. Now don’t misunderstand me. I love my wife. She is a great wife and a great mother. Problem is, she has three kids I have two.
So I’m enjoying my day. But honestly it was windy and pretty cold. I was fishing for catfish. I love catfish. I usually take a couple of poles. So after setting up one of my poles I laid it down. I walked away for just a moment to work on another set up. I was about 30 feet from my rod when I realized I had a fish on. The whole thing was heading into the Suwanee River. It left the bank and sped hurriedly with the current. I jumped into the river to get my pole. My foot sank into a hole and I went face first into the river. By God’s grace I caught my pole. I stood up and realized I still had the fish. After a good fight I landed the beast. Two massive pounds of catfish.
I was drenched from head to toe. I was cold. I was bleeding from my dash against the rocks. And then I remembered that my wife had sent her cell phone with me. It was in my pocket. It was wet. It didn’t work. In the quiet of the early morning I could hear my wife who happened to be about 40 miles away at work. She said a lot to me…..and about me.
I prayed that day….for my wife’s cell phone. After I took it apart and broke out the hair dryer the Lord resurrected it. I was grateful for that. I cleaned my fish, picked up the kids and waited for my wife to get home. When she arrived I told her the whole story. I’ll spare you the details. But to summarize it ” You’re gonna get killed out there one day!” was pretty much all that was said.
Honestly I did feel like an idiot. I did look like an idiot. I was wet. I was cold. I was hurt. But you know what? I’m still going to go fishing. You know why? Because I love fishing. And that’s why I keep at this thing we call ministry. There are times I am embarrassed. There are times I am beat up and overwhelmed with the storms of life. There are times I do dumb things and make a fool of myself. There are times the cold winds of loneliness blow against me. But I keep going. I keep running this race. Because quiet honestly, I love fishing. I love bringing Christ glory by sharing the gospel with a lost world. To a lot of folks it doesn’t make sense. But to me it makes perfect sense. I’m a fisher of men, and I always will be. Jesus told me to follow Him and He would make me into one. He has done just that and I am glad.
You should listen to your wife. Fishing is a waste of time. Take up golf.
There is a reason why third of the disciples were fishermen, and not golfers.
That said fishing for skum bucket, bottom feeding, pieces of filth (aka Catfish) is not true fishing. True fishing is going after trout or small mouth bass. Bluegill are also fun to fight and eat.
SVM
I beg to differ my friend. Real fishing in hooking a Flagtail Yellow Snapper 50 yards from the boat while 70 miles off the coast of Key West at sundown. 🙂
Boats and me don’t mix. The boat goes up, the boat goes down, and the lunch comes out. Kind of funny seeing as I desperately wanted to go into the Navy before I surrendered to God’s will. I don’t even like fishing on lakes because of the boats there.
SVM
I get your “drift”, hence I will not make any more “waves” for you.
Keep on fishing, man.
The essence of fishing is acknowledging that we’re not in control. Not of the fish, not of the water, and sometimes not even of our equipment. Maybe your tumble into the drink is a reminder of that. Fishing (of whatever sort) keeps us humble, and reminded that God is still in charge.
And I’ll bet that catfish tasted amazing! 🙂
Like golf is better Dave Miller??? At least with fishing, you can have something to eat at the end. Golf balls and clubs are not very appetizing. 😉
Thanks for the post. Whether one is in ministry or not, one should look at why one does what one does and keep that up front and center when the storms come, and they most definitely will come.
Keep on fishing. There are some things that you should quit and some things that you shouldn’t quit. I’m not wise enough to always know when to quit or not to quit. One thing I do know, if I read what you wrote correctly, is that your wife doesn’t have three kids: she has two kids and a godly husband. Her husband is also mature enough to feed a congregation of sheep week in and week out and what seems childish in things like your fishing adventures helps to give you the perspective you need to convey spiritual truth to… Read more »
SVMuchany, where I live there are no trout or smallmouth bass. There are bluegill, but they aren’t putting up much of a fight unless you use a bream buster. Takes a lot of those to feed the family. However, the 24 lb flathead I recently caught in the river was excellent in fight and in taste. As for blasting the bottom feeders, I’m guessing you aren’t eating much chicken. Long live the catfish!
I’ve lived next to a pond and next to a golf course. At the pond, I caught smallmouth bass (even though they aren’t supposed to live in Alabama waters, but ours didn’t read that, so they kept on living and multiplying) and brim, and avoided snapping turtles and cotton-mouth moccasins while swimming with them on days too hot for the fish to bite. I also had more than a few mosquitoes and gnats catch me, but the bass and brim more than made up for what little blood I lost to the bugs. Granted, my son did make a few… Read more »