To play or not to play

Recently I returned to the Florida Keys after spending several weeks turkey hunting. The weather has been great since I have been back and I have been itching to go fishing. One problem that I have is that I have not worked on my book or other important projects for the Lord since I left to go turkey hunting and I am woefully behind.

I am very goal oriented and have outlined the progress that I want to make and I am a couple of weeks behind schedule and it bugs me to no end. To complicate things further I leave today to speak at a fundraiser for Teen Challenge in Philadelphia and it will put me even further behind.

Right after I got back to the Keys I sneaked out one day to go fishing and had a very stellar day. We literally loaded the fish box to capacity with fish and it felt good to get back on the ocean, smell the sea, hear our reel’s drags scream with delight and feel the pull of big fish streaking towards Cuba.

You might imagine how it made me feel to get invited to go fishing again on Saturday with some good friends and be conflicted with the decision of either staying inside sitting before my computer on a beautiful sunny day and working on my book, or go fishing with my good friends with just the right amount of breeze to keep the water cobalt blue and stir big fish into biting.

My strong will won the battle and I stayed and worked on the book; however throughout the day I longingly stared out to sea from my office which overlooks the ocean and envisioned my friends fighting monster trophy fish and having a great time on the water. It was hard to concentrate, but in spite of my distractions I made tremendous progress on the book and nearly completed an entire new chapter.

I could not wait to call my buddies to see how they did and later in the afternoon I began calling them repeatedly leaving message after message, but no one returned my call. I had invited one of them to attend church with me Easter Sunday and finally he called me to firm up the time that church started. When I inquired as to their success he was not in a good mood. He told me that they traveled far and wide in the hot sun and did not catch a single fish all day long. The reason they would not return my call was that they were thoroughly disgusted and they were in no mood to hear me rag them about it.

Hmmm The Bible tells us that we should become a living sacrifice to God and it demands reasonable service and devotion to God. The Christian walk is in essence a “living devotion to God”, and the Holy Spirit enables us to know what God’s will is for our lives. The question often becomes, will we listen to God or to the world? I’m glad I listened to God on Saturday Did you listen to God this fabulous Easter Sunday weekend?

Romans 12:2
And do not be conformed to this
world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may
prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God.