Fishing

I was running today and had a few thoughts about fishing and how it ties into life. 

Life takes patience.  So does fishing!  Some people are better at the game of patience.  Some people are experts at just sitting back, watching peacefully, taking in the scenery joyfully, and waiting for long periods of time with little or no action.  Others have to go out and make something happen!  These may be the Hillbilly Hand Fisherman, the ones that do not wait for a bite often and would literally go out and put the fish on their hook if they could.  There is no such thing as WAIT for many people, especially in the instant, drive-through culture we live in today.  (I am in the instant group often I must admit.)

I have seldomly been fishing with a group when there was not also a game of musical chairs or the GRASS LOOKS GREENER going on.  Around here, land or pier, if someone catches a fish, everyone else wants to move to that "honey hole" as we call it.  In life, we often want what others have.  We think their job, family, children, talent, clothes, house, land, toys, etc. must be better and wonder what would happen if we could just move on over into their territory and have a go at it.  Chances are that even with different surroundings, you would still be YOU and your life would still be YOUR life, meaning you would still have some green grass days and some days where the grass needs mowing, watering, and tended to, much like our relationships. 

Back to fishing...I am like a bobber at times.  Yes, I am and might I say a "busy, blonde bobber."  I have knowingly allowed myself to be CAST out into waters that I know are dark, destructive, and that quite honestly have no business in.  I have bobbed up and down when I could have still been safe and sound on the pier basking in the sun of my Lord and Savior.  Does this make sense at all?  Even if I am a believer in Jesus and I know I am one of His saved, chosen children, I have still allowed sin in my life and at times knowingly.  I am not and will never be perfect until the Lord calls me HOME to live with Him in heaven, but I also can not give up on holiness and aiming to live more like Jesus and less like the world.

Is there a logical solution to not bobbing? 
1.  YES, stay out of the water. If you have a weakness that the Lord has helped you identify, stay away from it.  Don't expect to be able to sit on the top of the water and just CHILL. You have, we all have, an enemy that will be in the dark, under the surface, lurking with an ugly scheme, and he will bring you down if you allow yourself to venture into his territory. 
2.  Don't compare yourself to others and think...well, at least I am not like so and so!  That type of reasoning means that you are already in unsafe waters and most likely beginning to bob.
3.  Understand this:  Your bobber will not be taken down for the same reasons mine will.  We are all different, made up of different DNA, behaviors, experiences, addictions, habits, etc.  Every believer in Christ must be willing to be honest about their own weaknesses and learn to avoid the places, people, stores, situations, and occasions that could cause them to change from a person of strength into a person of weakness.  When we are weak, we are susceptible to bobbing, being taken out, pulled under, hooked, and eventually destroyed by the hurt that is always a consequence of sin.  There is grace and forgiveness, but sin is always painful.  Ask the Lord to show you personally what may, can, will take you down.  I read Psalms 139 often and focus on the last few verses.  It is a guarantee to show me what the real story in my life is when I read it, sit, and listen to the Lord.
4.  Keep this in mind:  My former pastor at LHBC in Dallas, Mark Farish, said years ago "If you are on a diet, don't go in a donut store."  What words of wisdom those are!  They are profound words of wisdome and relate to my thoughts here well.
5.  When you find yourself on the edge and tempted to venture BACK into the old habit or sin  pattern, hit the play button in your mind and speak the Word out loud.  My last bobbing experience could have been avoided with these: 

John 16:33 says "I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome this world."   

"Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Come near to God and He will come near to you."  James 4:7-8
 
I am loved, I am chosen, I am a child of God, the Lord has plans for my life.  (something my kids and I say daily on the way to school.)

Every believer will be tempted, face trials, and engage in a spiritual battle.  The good news is that you are not alone.  Come near to God and He will come near to you. 

I pray today we all take a step away from what can bring us down and a step in the direction of Jesus.