Gone Fishing

I had a great time last Friday. I went fishing. Now I am not the best or most experienced fisherman around. But I do enjoy being in the great outdoors. And in this case I also greatly enjoyed the company. I was invited to go fishing by the husband of one of my church members. Although he had been active in church years ago, he had only been to church with his wife once in the year I have been at New Covenant. But we had met together a few times outside the church for dinner and had gotten to know each other a little. He invited me to go fishing.

Thursday night I went over to his place to check out the equipment. Then we went to buy fishing licenses at the local grocery store. A little before 6:00 a.m. Friday morning I got to his place, we loaded up the tubes, waders, boots, flippers, poles, and tackle. From there I drove about an hour and a half up to Weir and Johnson lakes on the Grand Mesa. We got to talk about a lot of things on the way up the winding mountain road. It sprinkled a little on the way up, but the whole time we were on the lake it was perfect weather.

We got there about 7:30 a.m. What a beautiful place! At an elevation of about 10,500 feet, the water is cool and clear. We could see the trout swimming and the mosquitoes flying around at the water’s edge. We quickly sprayed ourselves with deet; got into our gear; and were soon one the lake paddling ourselves in the Caddis cat fishing tubes.

Although I have fished before, I had never done fly fishing before. It’s a lot of fun. My friend gave me some good tips and showed me how to cast. Soon I was casting out that fly like I had been doing it for years.

And praise the Lord, I was not a total failure at fishing either! I was able to catch quite a few small trout. We did not keep any, just pulled them in, unhooked them, and let them go again. It was so much fun! And so relaxing just floating around on that beautiful lake. We were the only people on the lake. There was still snow in a few shady places under the trees. We saw a fox trotting along the shore. We talked, fished, relaxed, and enjoyed God’s handiwork. We came in about five hours later, packed up, and started back down the mountain. Had another great conversation about all kinds of things including God on the way home.

Sunday morning my friend came to worship again with his wife. I got to talk to him alone a little before the service. He told me that he had never given up on God, just on some church people. I told him God had never given up on him either. After the sermon, during the invitation time, he came forward wanting to join the church, having rededicated his life to Christ.

Fishing—for fish or for men. It is so fulfilling!

“Then Jesus said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.’"    (Mark 1:17 NKJV).