Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Fishing With Clyde

The first disciples Jesus called were fishermen.  It is important to note that when He called them, He called them to evangelism: "I will make you fishers of men."  You'd think I would get tired of saying this over and over that each Christian is called to verbally share their faith.  Naw. Never gonna happen!

I learn a lot about evangelism from fishing.  The metaphor of fishing, as Jesus uses it, is loaded with tips and tactics.  Sunday afternoon, I went fishing with Clyde Chandler, first time we had fished together, first time he had gone to this great creek I have been loving to wade fish ever since Mike Adams first showed me the place. It was one of the best times I have ever had fishing.  There was this day on the Gulf when we caught so many sharks and mackerel that I was giving away slabs of meat for days.  There was a day three years ago on this same creek where the action was so fast and furious, I almost felt guilty for catching so many fish.  And then there was Sunday with Clyde.  I was glad because I was worried maybe I oversold Clyde on the awesomeness of  the fishing... and what if we got skunked?  Sometimes it happens.  You catch no fish. Jesus tries to prepare His disciples for the times when you get nowhere no matter how hard you try.  Fishermen don't give up when that happens. That's the key.  I am not sure if Mike and I have ever been skunked on this creek.  I mean, I am sure we have, but it is blocked out of my mind!  Fishing is so good and so fun I am right back in it.  To be honest there have been days when Mike and I just got nowhere.  It was hot.  caught nothing and one of us just hollers how much we hate fishing and we are giving up and never going back... but net week there we are again because we just know there are fish!!!  This is totally how Jesus is trying to get you to think about evangelism!! There are people who have never heard the Word of salvation.  Some days they just never bite no matter how much you throw it out there!  But a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work, and all I can tell you is even when I get skunked sharing Christ, it is still awesome to talk about Him and do His work!

Ok, ok, ok, so what about fishing with Clyde?  What did I learn about evangelism thru this awesome day of fishing?

First, just get out there and do it!  Clyde and I have been talking about this for a while.  Time to quit talking and finally do it!

Second, Get that line in the water.  The real lesson that day was you have to cast everywhere because sometimes you will catch fish where you never have!  But you just have to start!  Where I like to jump in at, we almost never catch fish.  But we started early with some tiny largemouth bass.  Nothing worth writing home about, but, hey, we were at least catching something!

Third, keep trying different things and see what works. You don't always know what they will bite on from day to day.  Clyde tried a few different lures, caught a lot of fish with a small grub and also with a swimmer bait.  I was getting little fish with something called a Ned Rig, with a worm-looking thing in "PB&J" colors.  Just catching little things, until in a long deep pool I caught a slob of a bluegill, the defensive linemen of bluegill actually; fish was almost as wide as it was long.  Then my lure got caught on a rock and getting it back messed up the hook... and that's when...

Fourth, you just never know where or how you will catch them.  I put on another Ned Rig.  Tired of small fish I wondered if maybe the big boys might like something else, maybe in a sickly green color?  We were casting all over, toward the banks, along the edges of riffles, under logs (and at this point let me say Clyde can retrieve lures that seem impossibly tangled up in trees.  No clue how he does that...)  Then we came to a small pool, maybe 20 feet long by 4 feet wide.  5 feet deep.  We were in calf-deep water casting into it, to the other bank, where a foot below the water a rock ledge ran the length of the pool.  Rock bass started hitting hard.  I caught 7 in maybe 10 minutes.  Clyde was hitting em that fast, too.  We had found the honey hole.   I have never caught fish here before.  Not one.  And now, they were going nuts.

In fishing, there is a euphoria that kicks in when you are really catching them.  The euphoria is the exact opposite of the despair you have when you catch nothing.  You totally block out the days you got skunked.  but when the bite is hot, you think crazy stuff like: "we can't go home.  we have to stay here and keep fishing."  or, "I am here because my caveman ancestors were such great fishermen and I carry on the noble tradition in my superior genes."  And then you get cocky.  At some point, Clyde said, "Now that we have been catching a lot, we really need to set our goals high and catch the big ones."  And occasionally, you can back up all that talk!  There in that little pool, where we probably had already caught 15 fish in 15 minutes, Clyde and I both landed giant smallmouth.  One of the things I was looking forward to, moving to Kentucky from the Gulf Coast 25 years ago, was fishing for smallmouth.  Has not disappointed.

Fifth lesson: if it is working, keep doing more of it.  Once I switched to the sickly green colored ned rig z-man lure, I did not change. I didn't have time to even if I wanted to!  You ask, "if you were catching so many fish, why would you want to?"  Well, Church, it's because in evangelism, a huge barrier is wanting it our way.  We have a whole set or preferences and prejudices that keep us from doing effective evangelism.

We do not want to go door-to-door.

We do not want to go that part of town.  We want people who are more like us.

We do not want to have to make a verbal proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ.  "I will just let my actions speak."

We go into it thinking the fish should like the bait we are using.  We want to do things the way we are comfortable with, and sadly, this has meant that most churches have no evangelism plan or goals!  My evangelism professor, Bob Tuttle, used to say that he really did not like it that door-to-door evangelism works.  He wanted something more elegant, more "theologically sophisticated." But it works.  So do more of it!

Over the past few weeks, my other fishing buddies Mike and Shawn have seen giant muskie prowling our little creek.  They saw one guy catch a 44 inch muskie that was trying to eat the trout the fellow had caught!  Clyde and I saw lots of gar swimming around. So there are more and bigger fish than we have ever caught!  Jesus was on to something when He used fishing as a metaphor for evangelism.  Just go fish. Keep at it.  Sooner or later you will start catching. You don't always know how or why.  Just do it. And as you try all different kinds of ways to catch the fish, go with what is working when it is fast and furious!

Clyde and I will be back at it soon.  One day we will catch a muskie.