Fishing

Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. 
Have you ever spent any amount of time fishing? You buy just the right rod and reel, secure the amount of tackle you believe you will need to land that huge haul of wiggly swimmers, and head off to the huge lake or pond to drop that line in the water. Then you wait. Then you wait even longer. Still you wait even more. After about two hours of this, I have had it! I am not very good at this "angling" thing! Yet, I find the day totally relaxing and awesomely invigorating, even though I have given up on the original intent of the day - fishing. Why? Maybe because it is spent with people I love, watching them do something they love. Or perhaps it is that I enjoy being in nature and observing the handiwork of God - remembering he created all this magnificence for none other than each one of us. Better yet - perhaps it is because of both of these reasons! 
Sometimes we aren't in the best of places while we are living life day-to-day. We find ourselves tied up in knots and our confident hope in God wanes a little bit because we find the troubles we face looming big in our immediate sight. I think waiting is the hardest thing to do, especially when things haven't gone as expected or desired. Babies are born with heart defects or epileptic seizures, requiring endless hours of care and dare I say worry about their every need. Homes are set into chaotic disarray when one takes ill. Families are torn apart by decisions made in haste. It isn't that life isn't easy - it is that life gets complicated and there is a degree of "unrest" that occurs for each of us. When all is at "unrest" in our lives, it is the best time to come to a place of quiet repose and just "be still" in God's presence.
Many of you have followed my blog long enough to know how much I love to vacation with my BFF. She thrills my heart with her laughter, gets me recharged with her beautiful smiles and warm hugs, and challenges me to soar to new heights - all probably without even realizing she is doing it! This vacation isn't cram packed with visits to this amusement park, or that tourist spot. In fact, it is spent enjoying the hiking trails and sitting on the shorelines in quiet repose, just recharging our batteries, so to speak. There are many in need all around us - cancer ravaging bodies of those we love; jobs being lost by those we respect and care about; and family dynamics challenging even the best of us. One thing I have learned - we rest and God does the rest! We pray and he does the work of sorting out those prayers, making sense of all that has us tied up knots. We ask and he does the work of helping us find the right answers. We seek and he reveals that which will perfectly meet our need.
May I challenge each of you to take time to recharge your batteries once in a while - you probably don't do it often enough anyway! It is the best time to just remember the God you serve and the blessings you have been given in life. The challenges will sort themselves out when we learn to rest in him a little bit more. Just sayin!

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