One time when I was living in the Keys I went offshore fishing and had a truly spectacular day. The water was perfect, there was a cool breeze, the moon was perfect and the best fighting fish in the ocean, Wahoo’s or “Hoos” as we call them, were biting like crazy.
We were fishing a new place that I found in the Bahamas. The tiny island was covered with gray rugged rocks with a few hardy scraggly trees tenaciously clinging to patches of soil on small cliffs. These little trees had somehow survived centuries of hurricanes and salty sea breezes and they were an interesting backdrop against the cobalt blue ocean that was churning white froth at its base.
Several times throughout the day I privately thanked God for his beautiful creation and for allowing me to partake of it. Being on the ocean is a great place to pray and I took full advantage throughout the day.
We caught Hoo after Hoo and the fish box was beginning to get full. Suddenly line began screaming off one of the reels and a big Wahoo rapidly began taking out line. Before one of my anglers could even get to it, another reel started screaming. I ran to clear the third and before I could even begin reeling it, yet another big fish hit and began taking out line like a greyhound on steroids (while I was holding the rod).
WOW! A triple header!
There were only three of us and we were all fighting “VERY” big fish and there was no one to even drive the boat, (thank God for auto pilot). All of us were veteran anglers and we did manage to successfully get all three in the boat without tangling our lines after quite a bit of coordination between trying to leader each fish beside the boat in order to gaff it and continue fighting the others.
After putting the last fish in the box, I remarked, “That’s it, we have all the Wahoo that we could possibly want, let’s leave some for the next guys. Maybe we’ll find some tuna or Mahi Mahi on the way home”. Feeling awesome we cleared the lines and headed for the beautiful Florida Keys, (home).
The journey back was about eighty miles and we usually saw some unbelievable sights on practically every trip. This one was no exception. We were about half way home when we saw a huge splash in front of us. As we drew closer we saw that it was a huge Sperm Whale. He would come up out of the water and turn on his side exposing his white belly and slap his huge black pectoral fin in the water. I got up in the tower and we followed him for about two miles, photographing him as he came up for air and then blew foul smelling seawater twenty feet in the air before descending. He was at least forty feet long and we got some incredible photos of him splashing and blowing through his porthole nose. Finally we left him to his journey and continued on ours.
Mahi Mahi like to hang out around any floating object such as logs, plywood, or other debris. When you find a piece of debris floating out in the ocean, it is quite easy to catch them. I wanted a few of these tasty fish for dinner and we were looking hard for debris. As we drove along I saw a piece of debris and sped over to it. It was a big plastic bag tightly filled with something. Uh oh, it looked like a bale of marijuana. Drug smugglers frequent these waters and it is quite common for fishermen to find bales of pot, cocaine, and/or cash floating in the ocean. We pulled alongside the bale and hauled it in. We cut a small opening in it and sure enough it was a bale of marijuana.
Uh oh!
My two fishing buddies both looked at me and asked what we were going to do with it. I looked around and there was not a boat in sight. I said, “Put it in the back and let me think about it for a minute”. In talking among ourselves we decided that if we sold it we could get easily get $5,000 or more and one of the crew knew just the guy in the Keys that sells it and would meet us somewhere offshore in International waters and pick it up.
I hate to admit it, but I was tempted in more ways than one. In the 60′s I smoked enough marijuana to fill a battleship and I liked it very much! I was sorely tempted not only to make a quick $5000, but to keep some for myself.
After far too much deliberation for a Christian, I ordered the bag to be cut open and emptied into the sea and we watched as it slowly floated away. I’d kept out a rather large sized clump for “medicinal” purposes, but after spending way too long “thinking about it” I finally decided that it would be very wrong for me to keep it and it too met a watery grave.
In thinking of this day and all of the wonderful things God allowed us to participate in with the beautiful water, weather, and scenery; not to mention the Hoo’s and the whale, and then along comes satan with his bale trying to snatch the good clean fun away from us by tempting us to participate in evil and sin.
I’ve witnessed several people literally drop dead from taking an overdose of drugs and I’ve seen far too many other drug related horrors, and could tell you about it for hours. I hate drugs with all of my fiber.
Just yesterday a judge wrote me and asked my opinion of legalization of marijuana and I emphatically told her NO! Regardless of what its proponents say, marijuana is a “gateway” drug that leads to dangerous drugs like cocaine, heroin, and meth-amphetamine. Inhibitions get lowered after smoking a joint and someone asks if you want to smoke some crack and you say, “Sure why not”? And the next thing you know you are hooked on dangerous, dangerous drugs. I saw it happen a thousand times and in fact that is how I got started on drugs. Further it makes one lethargic, kills incentive, makes one paranoid, gives a false grandiose feeling of invincibility, and it is extremely hard to ever stop smoking it. In fact it was the more difficult drug of all for me to quit using; even more so than shooting up meth.
God allows us to be tempted make no mistake about it. There is no shame in being tempted, even when sorely tempted. The Bible tells us that God always provides an escape route and we need to look for it and take it. We had good clean fun fishing that day and enjoyed the blessings of God all day long.
Breaking the law, and smoking pot all day and being in a stupor and calling that fun does not work. When being tempted, I only remembered the fun times of smoking pot, I did not think about the time I witnessed one of my friends OD, or the time I was going though withdrawal and puking my guts out and uncontrollably shaking, or spending time in a prison tier with forty other criminals trying to stay away from perverts.
We have choices. Make the right choice to stick with God and the righteous things of this lifetime and know that He will be proud of you even if it might have taken a little longer than we both would have liked to consider satan’s offering and reject it. The bottom line is I rejected satan and I am exceedingly happy that I made that decision.
Have a great day today and go to church this Sunday!
James 1:14
But each one is tempted when he is drawn
away by his own desires and enticed.
Then when desire has conceived and it gives birth to sin;
and sin when it is full grown, brings forth death.
Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from
above and comes down from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no variation or
shadow of turning.