"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."
(Job 1:21)
Ok. It's true that Job was dealing with a lot more than I ever do. And maybe it's stretching it a bit to apply lessons in Job's patience to a lunch time fishing trip. But today was a very interesting day.
Job is known to the entire world as a man of great patience, as is evidenced in the quote above which he spoke after having lost everything.
But maybe, just maybe, God sometimes does the opposite as He teaches us patience. Maybe sometimes He "takes away" to test our patience, then gives it back.
I was fishing alone today. It had been raining off and on, but had stopped while I was at the lake. The sky was cloudy and was getting darker. I tied on a craw jig covered in salt and started heaving it out to the middle of the lake. After yesterday's fun at the pond, dragging the bottom for every piece of foliage, I was looking forward to a clutter-free time at RSM.
But I started seeing a trend pretty quickly. I wasn't dragging up debri from the bottom. I was getting stuck and hung up on what seemed like every rock in the lake!
I worked that little craw free from probably 3 different rocks in the course of maybe 10 casts. But the 4th rock proved to be out for my bait and I ended up breaking it off and reeling in some empty line.
"Alright. Maybe I'll try something else." I reached for my Firetiger crankbait thinking I'd give it a try. As I was pulling it out of the case I was already thinking, "I really don't want to lose this guy." But I tied him on anyway and away we went.
On days like this when I'm out there by myself or just away from everyone, I will sometimes drift in and out of prayer. Pray a bit. Watch the people. Watch my line. Wonder what the bait looks like bouncing around the bottom of the lake. Pray a little more. Watch the birds. Watch my line.
So as I'm "drifting", my crankbait keeps getting hung up here and there. Just a little bit, but enough to make me nervous.
It's starting to drizzle a little bit and the sky is really getting dark when all of a sudden....
THUNK!
I felt my bait hit a rock and stop dead. I felt it come right through the rod as if someone had hit the rod with a stick. There was no slip. No drag across the hard surface. It hit the rock and stopped ... and that's where it stayed.
I head back to my backpack with my broken line ... again
"Maybe I should just head back to the office," I thought.
I still have a little time, so I'll try a long shot. I T-rigged a plastic craw (which I've never had any luck with) and was thinking, "I'm starting to get discouraged. If I just knew that I was going to catch something, I could say that it's going to be worth it." I started walking. I just need to get away from this area. There are too many rocks here and I'm not good enough at retrieving stuck bait.
So I head down about 200 feet to a little point, set my backpack down, and toss my line in the water. First, on the left side. Wouldn't you know it, there are rocks over there!!!! It gets hung up a bit, but not stuck.
Let's try the right side.
Let's try that side again.
(Yes, I talk to myself in first person plural.... or maybe I'm drifting again)
"Wait....There he is ... There he is!"
Fish On!!!!
0 comments