I Fish Therefore I Lie

The day before last I went camping with five of my friends out to a lagoon... although it actually might have been a lake (I’m not really sure what the difference is)… but the point is that we went camping out near a larger body of water than a pond but not a large enough body of

water to be considered a sea or an ocean.

It was pretty eventful, and we caught a few fish.

Fishing is a new deal for me because I was a city slicker growing up so there wasn’t much opportunity for that kind of thing, and besides, my dad and I are the only ones in my family that eat fish so we never had too much incentive to go fishing even when we had the chance.

Fishing was cool though because it made me think a lot about Peter, Andrew, James, and John. They were all fishers of fish, but Jesus called them to be fishers of men (Mark 1:17). It’s interesting how Jesus associated fishing with evangelizing... as if maybe he intended that we approach the act of winning people over to Himself in the same way that we would approach winning fish over to our stomachs… or to other people’s stomachs haha.

But this was different because San Jose is rural and because scavenging for meat is a popular activity among my friends. Because of them, I can now say that I have experienced both aquatic and terrestrial meat scavenging! ... hmm, so I guess the only one remaining would be aerial, but don’t worry, I’ll try to get after that as well and when I do I’ll be sure to write you about it (I still don’t think scientists have discovered any astronomical possibilities, but if that ever happens, you can expect another entry along those lines as well).

In our approach to catching fish we used three methods: spreading out a long net across a substantial width of a part of the lagoon and leaving it there to see what would happen, throwing out and pulling in a smaller net into various parts around the lagoon to see what else would happen, and last and definitely least, throwing a nylon string with a hook at the end of it into a very small part of the lagoon to see if anything at all would happen.

So for starters, Eliecer, Sergio, and I went out to set up the larger net. It was so cool because just as we were doing it, we caught this really huge fish (they always say that fisher’s are liars and if you saw it you would probably be like, come on Sam, that is not a huge fish, but to me it was, and besides, it was the biggest one we caught all night)… but we caught it and it was like all three of us were really pumped and I started gutting it out but it felt more like I was dissecting it because it was just so awesome, and then Eliecer said that if you catch a good first fish, that’s a good sign of good luck.

And that made me think and so I said, “I don’t believe in luck” and Sergio asked, “why not?” and I was like, “because I believe in God” and so then Eliecer said “well, who’s the one that gives the luck?” and I was like, “God.” So I guess that settled it haha.

To turn this into an analogy though, an interesting thing is that since the time I came to San Jose, the first guy I
shared the gospel with is a guy called Elkin and to the right is a picture of him and me about a year ago. As of two weeks last Sunday he was the first one from our group to get baptized and underneath is another picture of him along with another girl who got baptized that same day and another man who helped me do the baptizing… I tend to consider Elkin a pretty big fish because I think he has a lot of potential for leadership. And Nelly (the other one in the picture who got baptized as well), she also has a lot to contribute and has contributed, but she's switching ponds because she's going to be moving to Bogota next week.

But back to the story… the next thing that Eliecer, Sergio, and I did was to go out and start fishing with the smaller net. Sergio would paddle in the back, Eliecer would throw the net in the front, and I would sit in the middle telling Sergio where to paddle and Eliecer where to throw haha. Pretty sweet set up huh? It was funny because Eliecer and Sergio started telling me that the next time they got close to the shore they would leave me there and pick up Fernando because all I would do was give them orders and at least Fernando would take pictures haha.  

The fish we caught in the smaller net were smaller ones and I wanted to gut all of them out but Sergio told
me I shouldn’t until we get back on shore. That being the case I would line them all up and count them every time we had some more come in. After a while Eliecer told me I shouldn’t do that because it was bad luck to count the fish.

  

That also kind of made me think because obviously I don’t believe in luck, but I always thought it was interesting how in the Bible one of King David’s big mistakes was to count his soldiers (2 Samuel 24:10). At first it’s like, come on, what’s so bad about having a little census every now and then? But I guess the reason why God didn’t want David to have a little census every now and then was because when you’re doing a little census you never want it to be little, you always want it to be big, and when it is, you want to use that fact to help you feel good about yourself. Either that, or David would then base all of his military decisions exclusively on the amount of soldiers he had, and he would cease to give glory to God and he would forget that the battle belongs to the Lord (Psalm 20:7).

I’m not saying that numbers aren’t important, because they are (Acts 11:21, 24-25), but the truth is that God is the one that causes the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6). Sometimes I get annoyed at the fact that there’s this one gentleman from Bogotá who calls me up pretty frequently, and I mean I know that all he wants to do is help and I know that his heart is right for sure, but it’s just like the first question he always asks is, “and how many people showed up to the Sunday morning gathering last week?” And it’s just like man, well maybe if we were growing like crazy I wouldn't mind telling you about it, but some weeks we’ll just have like 15 and once we even had as low as 9… BUT (and this is an old Indian trick I recently discovered)… if you really believe in prayer, then maybe it’s better you just mention the low numbers because that way people will pray harder haha.

I don’t know, I think that maybe it’s good to not be so caught up with numbers sometimes because when you’re doing your best you know it, and when you’re not you know that too, but it’s not your best or your worst that controls those things, it’s God. And although we DO have to do our best and although we DO have to be strategic, the biggest thing is that we have to put our faith in the Lord of the Harvest and follow Him wherever it is that He leads us. I mean, for me here in San Jose, a gathering of 9 people is pretty small, but then again if I was a missionary say in the 10-40 window man, 9 people coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and meeting together to pray, break bread, study the Word, and fellowship in one year would be ridiculously awesome!               

So hats off to those of you serving in the 10-40 window.

 

In this picture we actually all have our hats on.

But another lesson I learned on our fishing trip is that sometimes following the Lord’s will can be uncomfortable (See Luke 9:57-62).

Since I was the one sitting in the middle of the boat doing nothing but giving orders and asking questions (but I mean honestly, it’s not like I was giving thaaaat many orders), I asked Eliecer “Why do you always throw the net to your left and never to your right?” And this time his response had nothing to do with luck. In fact, what I’m about to tell you is so interesting because it proves that Peter or whoever it was that was the one throwing the net in the story where Peter and the six other disciples went fishing after the death of Jesus – whoever it was that was doing it, was a righty as opposed to a lefty (awesome discovery right? haha, way to go Sam, you should be a detective)! See, Eleicer is a righty and so when I asked him why he never threw the net to the right, he told me it was because it’s uncomfortable.

If you’re right handed, it’s more natural to throw the net with your right hand in front of your left and swing

your arms out towards your left as you release the net. In the story of Jesus and the disciples in John chapter 21 it says that Jesus, while standing on the shore of the lake told the 7 disciples to throw the net to their right. I’m sure that must have been like the most ridiculous thing for them to hear in the whole world because it’s like what difference would it make, right? Left. (That was supposed to be a pun, get it, like instead of saying wrong? haha). I’m kidding. I think it was ridiculous enough, but I mean they hadn’t even caught anything all night, so why not give it a shot? I’m sure it was the most clumsy, ungraceful net throw in the history of net throwing, but it was also the most miraculous. The passage says the disciples weren’t even able to haul the net IN because it was so full of fish (v. 6)!

Now I already told you that fishermen like to lie, but this is God’s word we’re talking about and I know that  It’s interesting that the disciple who threw the net had to do it in the most uncomfortable and ungraceful way possible. I wonder if I’m willing to do what Jesus is calling me to do even though I know it’s going to be really uncomfortable and really awkward. I know that there are a lot of times that I’m not willing. So Lord, please help me be willing.
God doesn’t lie, so it must be true (Numbers 23:19). They caught tons of fish because they threw the net into the water on the right hand side just like Jesus told them to. And it didn’t have anything to do with luck. None whatsoever. It had to do with the fact that God ordained it that way and they obeyed. And so we also have to obey whatever it is that God ordains.

But I want to ask you if you’ve been neglecting to do the Lord’s will simply for the sake of your personal comfort? You never know, there could be a huge catch just waiting to be caught on the other side. Lord, please save us from comfort. Whether there is or whether there isn’t a huge catch, is irrelevant (Habakkuk 3:17-19), our responsibility is to obey. So Lord, please help us obey.