One time when I was living on the island of Islamorada 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 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 big reels and a large Wahoo began rapidly taking out line. Before one of my anglers could even get to it, another reel started screaming. I ran to clear the third and get that one out of the way of the others 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 autopilot). 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 lead 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 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 halfway home when we saw a huge splash in front of us. As we drew closer we saw that it was a huge Humpback 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 rotten fish-smelling seawater twenty feet in the air before descending. He was at least forty feet long and we got some incredible photos of him alongside my boat splashing and blowing through his porthole nose. Finally, we left him to his journey and continued ours.
Tasty 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 delicious fish for dinner and we were looking hard for debris. As we drove along, I saw a piece of floating debris with a small bird sitting atop it and sped over to it. It was a big plastic bag tightly filled with something. Uh oh, it looked like a bale of drugs. Drug smugglers frequent these waters, and it is quite common for fishermen to find bales of pot, cocaine, and even 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. We looked around and there was not a boat in sight. My mate told me that if we sold it, we could get easily get $5,000 or more and he 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 the 60s 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. We kept out a rather large-sized clump for “medicinal” purposes, but again after spending way too long “thinking about it” I finally decided that it would be very wrong for us to keep it and it too met a watery grave.
In thinking of this day and all the wonderful things God had allowed us to participate in with the beautiful water, weather, and scenery; not to mention the Hoos 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 one of his best weapons to destroy humanity, drugs.
I’ve seen far too many other drug-related horrors and could tell you about it for hours. I hate drugs with all my fiber. One time a judge wrote me and asked my opinion of legalization of marijuana, and I emphatically told her it was a terrible idea! Regardless of what its proponents say, marijuana is a “gateway” drug that often leads to more dangerous drugs like cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine. 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’ve seen 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.
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 a wonderful good clean fun day of fishing and enjoyed the blessings of God all day long. It was enough for me.
When tempted I initially only remembered the fun times of smoking pot, I did not think about witnessing several of my acquaintances OD, or the time I was going through withdrawal and puking my guts out, cramping, and uncontrollably shaking or spending time in a prison tier with forty other criminals trying to stay alive and away from perverts. We all started down that dangerous road by first smoking pot.
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 temptation and reject it. The bottom line is I rejected Satan and I am exceedingly happy that I made that decision.
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.