Where Ya Fishing?

 

Where ya fishing?

One of my true loves is trout fishing. I grew up in spending my summer’s trout fishing in the crystal clear mountain streams of New Mexico. In order to catch a beautiful clean trout, I could tie on a neatly tied fly imitation then present it in just the right way so that the trout would assume that it was real and engulf it. There are few things as fulfilling as seeing the surface of the water swell, as the trout would rise to taste the tiny fly morsel. Unfortunately, I often would find myself going home with nothing more than cold feet and the memories of how beautiful the mountains are, even with an empty satchel. One of my options in this situation (wanting just to catch a fish) would be to put some nasty old stink bait and find a dirty old scum filled pond and catch some scanky old googly eyed carp.(nasty fish that nobody wants) But at least I would catch a fish even if its not what I want. It occurs to me that we are that way in life. We know what’s best or even what God desires for us, but when it becomes difficult or we become impatient, we settle for less. How often have we settled for just a little time for our family or friends be- cause we had something we thought was more important or dated someone that was much more like a googly eyed carp than a trout because it was less of a chal- lenge or all we could find at the time. How about that little carp sin that you just can’t get rid of and it even kind of stinks up yours satchel, but you get used to it and it doesn’t even bother you anymore. Wouldn’t it be nice to take home a satchel full of pure trout that may have taken a little more work and a little more effort in presenting yourself as a neatly tied package? I have to check myself constantly to see if I am just nasty old stink bait fishing for the googly eyed carp of life or am I working toward being a neatly tied package, pleasing to God, fishing for the trout purity of life. May we all be encouraged to not settle for less than the beautiful pu- rity that God has for us?