May 28, 2019 – Click here to listen
Yesterday I took three young men and an old-time friend of mine fishing at his request. The seas were rough, and these three guys were not experienced AT ALL . . . They got their lines tangled periodically throughout the day and twice got them caught up in the outboard motors necessitating having someone hang onto your legs to keep you from going head first into the ocean while dangling over the engines in rough seas all the while trying to unwind their fishing line from the propeller.
All three were using their phones to video the event and text their friends and relatives. They were very disappointed when we went so far offshore that they could not get a cell signal but made up for it by taking perhaps a thousand photos of each other, the water, a passing ship, holding fishing rods, and so on.
One of them threw a mighty cast and the hook brushed the side of my face as he went forward with his cast. I shudder to think how that might have felt had the hook lodged in the side of my face. We had fish behind the boat virtually all day long, but the novices could not cast to them and would fall down as they ran around the boat excitedly. They would heave the bait and it would go flying into the air without the hook because they forgot to unlock the bail and put it in casting mode and similar mistakes.
My friend offered to drive the boat and asked me to fish. He didn’t want his friends to go home empty handed and they were so inexperienced he wanted someone who could catch something. I went back and promptly caught a nice dolphin, but those guys were so wild I came back and told him I would drive the boat and he could fish with them. He spent most of the day dodging casts, untangling lines, and baiting their hooks and so on.
The day wore on and a couple of them went up front and went to sleep. My friend told me they were so excited about going fishing they had stayed up all night and couldn’t sleep the night before our trip. Somehow, we managed to land five Mahi in total. I was disappointed at our poor showing and was thinking to myself what a miserable day of fishing, but those guys were on cloud nine and lined up on the dock to get their photo taken with their catch. They thanked me repeatedly for taking them in my boat and excitedly took the fillets with them and left for their drive home in Ft. Myers grinning and laughing as they walked out to their car.
All the while I had been judging the fishing day through the lens of an experienced fisherman and was keenly disappointed. I failed to see the day as they saw it. To them it was fun, exciting, and a joyful experience of a lifetime. I was thinking about this today and I thought of immature Christians. They might not know much Scripture or understand the Bible, but they love Jesus and in the end isn’t that all that really matters?
Do you feel real excitement about your walk with the Lord? I remember as a baby fisherman being just like the three young men that I took fishing; I didn’t know that I wasn’t a good fisherman and didn’t really care, I was reveling in sheer delight with every fish I managed to land. I remember as a baby Christian the excitement and joy of loving Jesus and being loved. I didn’t know the finer points of Scripture or complicated explanations of God’s word, but nonetheless I was excited to no end about knowing Jesus as my Savior.
I don’t ever want to lose that joy in fishing or in knowing Jesus. This was a good wake-up call for me. It was a call for joy. I hope it makes sense to you as well. I would have hated to have thrown a wet blanket on their party by yelling at them every time they missed a fish or did something wrong and lamenting our poor catch and perhaps even discouraged them from ever fishing again. Instead they were greatly encouraged and left saying they would be back and go fishing again soon and I have no doubt that next go around they will be better fisherman. In similar fashion we should not ridicule baby Christians because they are not as advanced as we are but encourage them to climb higher in their walk with the Lord that should indeed make being a Christian even more enjoyable.
Alexander Maclaren wrote: “The out-and-out Christian is a joyful Christian. The half-and-half Christian is the kind of Christian that a great many of you are – little acquainted with the Lord. Why should we live halfway up the hill and swathed in the mists, when we might have an unclouded sky and a radiant sun over our heads if we would climb higher and walk in the light of His face?”
Psalms 96:11
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy . . .