The Kid in Me presents “The Impossible Catch” How Fishing taught me to have Faith and Expect Miracles
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When I was a kid, fishing was a part of the way I would spend my time. I would ride my bike down to the Sacramento river and fish for afternoons to pass time. Nothing was better than hooking a fish and feeling a large tug on the end of the line. No greater feeling of seeing what would come up from the depths. I always imagined hooking the mother load of a leviathan. One morning there was a tournament in the marina bait shop. My childhood friend Matt and I saw something exciting as we planned for a day at the marina. The sign hung behind the manager said, “Biggest catch of the day wins a prize”. Well, little did I know there was an oil rig that had spilled in the river and affected a bunch of fish. In fact, fishing wasn’t going to happen within a few miles of our location. The usual fisherman in their high-class boats would normally come in from the day with 6-10 foot fish on their floors. Today yielded nothing for them. However, for me, I was walking along the marina and saw a couple fish coming near shore that were HUGE! Never have I seen these fish this close! Matt and I ran down to the waters edge and literally tried to wrangle and catch one with our bare hands. We even tried to make a spear with our little Swiss Army pocketknife. We managed to muscle this beast into our wagon. Upon walking in the door of the bait shop the manager was shocked knowing the circumstances of the day. He awarded us with a six-pack of Fanta Orange drink. You would have thought we won the lottery. We drank ourselves sick and took the fish home to show our families. We smelt of dead fish, we were sick with soda but we were proud.
We left that day hoping to catch a fish. The conditions said it wasn’t going to happen even for the best. However, there was something better in store…
This reminds me of a major life lesson of faith and trusting. Life has so many “unknowns”. The way odds or circumstances feel “impossible” can be daunting. There are moments when prayers seem to hit the ceiling and our challenges needing miracle.
I am encouraged by the hope in the story of Luke 5. It was common that fisherman would only fish at night and in the shallows for a catch. The men had fished all night with no return. Jesus shows up and tells them to take the boat out into the deepest water and cast the net. Keep in mind he tells them to do this at noon, in the middle of the day. Everything in this situation makes zero sense: deepest water and middle of the day. Well, we know the story unfolds where their nets break because the catch is so large. It requires other boats to come help pull in the catch.
This story reminds me of my part in “believing” and having faith. These are verbs. Action words. When circumstances feel impossible and unknown I need to become a professional net caster. How can I cast the net trusting an expecting him to show up?
What sort of circumstances have you had that have stretched your faith and trust? Please leave a comment below. I’m glad you’re here.
Recent comments
Nick Knezic 9 years ago
Mixed blessing’s.
I had just got a 2004 truck to replace my old 1991 truck. My wife was not use to driving the newer truck so when she went through the dive up at the local Rite aid store she got to close to a pole and dented the right side of the truck bed. The insurance gave me a check for $3,000 to fix the body damage. Just shortly after that the Doctors found a spot on my wife’s rip and where concern that her cancer might have come back. I wanted to look into alternative medicine for a second opinion but the insurance won’t pay for that, my wife was worry about what we where going to do. I told her don’t worry we have the money! But from where she said! I told her from the truck, see we can always drive the truck with the dented bedside. With the money we got we where able to fly to southern California go to the cancer clinic get her check out (the special blood test they did reveled no cancer) she’s also going to have a biopsy to make sure (the insurance will pay for that) See I don’t need a big fancy truck to do drive but I do need my soul mate.