[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Saturday, March 29, 2014

[Paul]

Hello and good day to you all on this last Saturday in March or, for you in Australia and New Zealand, the last Sunday in March.  I hope that your day, whether morning, afternoon or evening, is going well.

Before I give you the article per se, here's a brief report on our Lions district cabinet meeting.  Basically we heard a report from the superintendent of the Maryland School for the Blind outlining how the Lions could help the school in its ongoing efforts to educate multiply-handicapped blind children, followed by various committee reports.  My part in the deliberations was none at all, as I'm not a cabinet member.  (By the way, a Lions district cabinet is the legislative body that takes care of business districtwide).  However I did learn that one of the Lions members is going to fetch me on May 11, a Sunday, for a stride walk to raise funds for diabetes in an area not served by our local Paratransit service in Baltimore, and I'm going to be able to attend our multiple district convention in Maryland's only seaside community of Ocean City.

And now to the article in question.  It deals with the subject of fishing, written by Pastor John Heille of Fairmont MN.  His article is entitled "Take a Risk, Go Fishing," and it's rendered as follows:

Each of the four Gospels tells unique stories about the first people to follow Jesus.

Matthew says the first two, Peter and Andrew, were out in Lake Galilee fishing with nets in the water when Jesus called to them with His invitation, "Come, be My disciples, and I will show you how to fish for people!" And they left their nets at once and went with Him (Matt. 4:19-20 NLT).  A little later, walking along the shore, Jesus saw two other brothers, James and John, mending their nets and He invited them to come along too.

Matthew tells of no prior relationship between Jesus and these men.  John 1:35-42 tells us that Andrew had been one of John the Baptist's disciples and that he'd heard the Baptist announce Jesus as the Lamb of God, but Matthew doesn't give any such information.

In Matthew the invitation comes as a surprise.  There's risk in accepting Jesus' surprise invitation to go fish for people.  Listening to the story and hearing this invitation to leave it all seems risky; but who better could Jesus have found than fishers to understand risk? For them, risk is just a part of daily activity.  Fishers go out to sea putting everything they need to make their livelihood at risk.

The boat is always at risk if the weather turns.

The nets, traps, and lines are always in danger too.

If a net is dropped and a line breaks while pulling, the net is gone, along with its catch.

When a buoy breaks away from a trap, it's lost to the deep.

When hooks break from the line, a fish (and all the effort to land it) is lost.

Fishers live with personal danger every day on the water.  Even recreational fishers have stories to tell about wading in too deep or nearly falling overboard.  These very first disciples to follow Jesus knew risk every day.  His invitation to fish for people is real for us too; it doesn't matter whether we are risk averse or whether we thrive living on the edge.  His invitation is to leave the old behind and come with Him and fish for people.

And there you have Pastor Heille's article for today, which I hope was a blessing to you.  It might be somewhat interesting for you who do not live in coastal communities that the residents of Smith Island MD and Tangier Island VA are, for the most part, engaged in one way or another in the occupation of fishing.  In fact, the last working fleet of fishing boats that primarily use sails is found among the residents of Ewell, Tyleton and Rhodes Point, three close-knit communities that make up Smith Island.  I'm sure there are other fishing communities as well that have their own unique lifestyles.  Oh, by the way, residents of the above-named islands are all to a person deeply committed Christians.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Don't forget that tomorrow for most of you there will be the weekly Bible game, so get your thinking caps ready.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul