Fishing 101: To Fish or Be Fished, That Is The Question
 
We fish for different reasons. For some it is work. For some it is to relax. For some it is to escape. Fishing has many benefits, not the least of which is that it gives one time to think. Against the backdrop of a calm river or a stormy sea, we inevitably gain some perspective about our life.
 
We fish because we love the hunt. Landing the fish, unless it is your business, is almost beside the point. It's the hunt and fight that we talk about afterwards. We crave the adrenaline rush of hooking the "big one."
 
Many years ago, Blaise Pascal noted that this is why "gaming and feminine society, war and high office are so popular." No one imagines bliss comes from the money, which we wouldn't take as a gift, or the burdens of leadership or warfare, but it's the rush, the pursuit, the chase---that's what gets us going and keeps us going.
 
But what of those times when the fish are not biting, the seas are calm, and the beer is gone. Have you ever given much thought that you are being fished? You may be a master fisherman---the guide's guide, the trophy leader---but there is Another who is pursuing you. Eventually He will box you into one of life's corners where His pursuit will be undeniable even to someone as stubborn as you. Life's corners may be professional, relational, financial, or physical. Maybe something else. There are not many varieties of corners and most of us have been in most of them. "Corners happen"---to paraphrase the French version of the same. But they happen for a reason---you are being fished. You are the prey---the big fish that wouldn't get caught.
 
The difference is this. When fish are caught they pulled out of the environment in which they thrive. When you are caught by God you will find for the first time the environment in which you can thrive.
 
While we all know better, we have all put the middle finger in God's face. "I'm a man's man," we say to ourselves. "Religion is for wusses, the psychologically weak, the intellectually deficient, and the sexually impotent." And so we go it alone and in time find ourselves in one of life's corners. God doesn't give up on us easily. We will all be cornered. Most of us when the heat is really on simply pour another drink---dull the pain, divert the attention, avoid the questions.
 
There is another way.
 
You can acknowledge that you are not God and that you are not really capable of running your own life much less everyone and everything around you. Playing god in your life has cost you a relationship with God. You've told Him in effect to "Get lost." But He doesn't. And while your attitude of going it alone has and will cost you your life, He paid the penalty you deserve in order to give you back the life you are forfeiting. If you want "abundant life"---that is life as it was meant to be lived---then there is no other way than to give up your self-driven life for the spirit-driven life God will give you. This is the way reality is designed---straight up, no nonsense. You can buck reality, but it will eventually come back to bite you and you will be miserable in the meantime. This is truth told in many ways all over the world. For most of you it is truth you've heard, but blew off easily, when you thought you knew so much about life at age sixteen. There is a lot of water under the keel now. It's easier to take that attitude when you're young and cocky. Harder when life's real questions start to mount.
 
Here's how the Bible puts the same thing:
 
1. We've screwed up---played god in order to deny God ("For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," Romans 3:23).
 
2. There is hell to pay for the mess we've made---both figuratively and literally ("For the wages of sin is death, Romans 6:23).
 
3. But there is life available as a gift---not only a new start but a new power to be a new you as you have never been you ("But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord," Romans 6:23).
 
4. God in His Son took the penalty we deserve in order to give us life we don't deserve---His death is consequently the measure of His love ("But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were sinners, Christ died for us," Romans 3:8). [Note: We don't have to clean up our act first!]
 
5. You worked hard to get yourself into one of life's corners. To get out you simply have to say to God, and mean what you say, that you want out and want His solution out, accepting with empty hands and even with minimal belief His offer of life ("That you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord", and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved," Romans 10:9).
 
6. It doesn't take much---it takes giving up ("I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief," Mark 9:24). You know what this means, because you've seen a fish give up the fight.
 
6. Life is a series of decisions, choices with real consequences. Here it is in a nutshell: Your way or God's, death or life, fighting or giving up. There is no third way. There is no way God will give up on you or reality won't force you to face this decision, for you are being fished.