Maybe you’ve had one of those short adventure trips where you hitch up the boat, jump in the car, and head out for a couple of days scouting new lakeshores, fishing new waters. It doesn’t mean you’ll have “catching” success, but it might give a new appreciation of other inlets, bays, islands. Of course, unless you hitch up the boat, jump in the car, and head out on that journey to try something new, you won’t find out any of what the scouting trip will tell you.
Same with the fishing itself. The lures you always turn to on your favorite lake might be a bust in a new one, but you might find something buried in your tackle box that works. Or maybe, maybe, you’ll need to try a completely new lure or technique of how to handle the rod or where to cast. You might need to drift differently or motor more slowly or rapidly. Maybe you’ll need a whole new perspective.
Do you feel resistance setting in? If so you are like most of us. You might find yourself at those scouting times saying, “But I know how to fish, where to fish! I know how to run the boat!” And on a “fishing and scouting” trip that may mean more frustration than fun; determination to keep to your regular ways may mean less satisfaction with the journey.
Aren’t we humans something? Created in God’s creativity and filled with creativity about art and business and education and science and music and crafts—but still so likely to get stuck in our regular ways.
On a fishing trip not long ago, scouting a new area, I realized that I like best my particular reel, rod, lure; that I feel more comfortable fishing where I know the dropoffs, weed lines, and the kind of bottom in each corner of the lake. But then, a suggestion of change came along. So, switching to a rod with different line, and different lure, drifting in what had seemed the wrong place, we came to a fine fishing hole.
Hearing about another way, then using the gift of creativity resulted in a fun fishing trip, including time to take in the views of different ridges, shore lunch at a different beach, sun descending over a different tree line— and a fulfilling day of satisfaction.
If you are saying, “Wait, where is the spiritual in this Spiritual Reflections column?” Try this from the Old Testament: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…. a time to embrace, a time to refrain from embracing, a time to seek, a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.” (Ezekiel 3).
Or ponder this, from Psalm 25, in the Bible: “Show me your ways, O Lord, and teach me your paths, lead me in your truth and teach me.”
Spend some time with this, from Luke, Chapter 24, in the New Testament: “After Jesus was crucified and died, he was buried. Two followers of his, heading away from where the crucifixion, death and burial occurred, journeyed the road in sorrow, knowing that that Jesus was no more. A stranger began walking with them, hearing them speak of sorrow and loss. They could not recognize that the stranger was Jesus, whose Resurrection they did not yet know. But as he listened, then talked, they found their hearts began to burn within them with understanding and faith; and they knew it was Jesus with them.”
In Christ, the old ways no longer determine the future. God’s creativity reaches further into the life of humanity. A hymn, You Have Come Down to the Lakeshore, includes this: “You have come down to the lakeshore… Sweet Lord, You have looked into my eyes, kindly smiling, you have called out my name.”
I invite you, do a little scouting in your soul, and recognize the creative love of God in Jesus, kindly calling your name.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This week our contributor is Pastor Kris Garey of Trinity Lutheran, Hovland.
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