Photo Essay: Fishing as a Means of Grace (Click on the Photos to Enlarge)

I got up to fish this morning but the prayer was better than the fishing.  The reality of Jesus Christ in my life is what got me out of bed. The work of a Pastor is a life and not a job and for this I am most grateful.  This living reality drives me to pray and to want more-more into and out of prayer.  I have little control over the outcome of prayer but I can control the environment of prayer.  There are times and places that open me up.  Being outdoors, especially at the daily transitions of sunrise and sunset, provide the most spiritual of moments. This is why I am here

The sunrise is a mystical thing.  It comes gradually as does the life in Christ.  Slowly things are revealed and the more you look the more you see.  The birth of this day shows nothing but possibility.  The temperature  never went down overnight.  The lake is low and the hot smell is more like a porta-potty than the great outdoors.  The shore is 20 feet further out than usual and a the day yields a hint of natures undergarments.  The shore slimes around abandoned fishing line and weed tangled boards.  I feel the spiritual neglect of the past few weeks. The sun comforts and quiets me.






The drought has beached the cattails.  They are struggling to stay alive in the high and dry.  The water's edge has an uncomfortable collection of sewer tiles and toilet parts.  Along with the foul smell, this makes me reluctant to get my hands in it.  This life gets beached and foul sometimes.  Some of my junk gets revealed and people get to see things that only God is privy.  Junk that I can usually keep hidden under the placid waters.

The pond lilies are in varying stages of bloom today.  With the lake down I can walk up to them.  My mind wander to  a conversation overheard in a restaurant once.  A Vietnamese lady was explaining the importance of water Lillis to a Buddhist.  These Lillis thrive when the mud is the most foul.  Out of the stench rises a beautiful blossom.  They filter the yuck and make it clean.  The water clears around the pads and the frogs, bugs and fish gravitate toward them.  These Lillis remind me of days in the past that how precious time is.  In Christ is a cleaner and more attractive life today than I had yesterday.  As I connect better with Him, I provide a place for people to grow.

The revelation of the day, the process of transition alive in everything, remind and comfort me.  I am a work in process.  Like Thomas Merton wrote, we should always strive to be beginners in the spiritual life, especially with prayer.  As a beginner I'm less likely to miss the presence of God this morning.  Experts often do.




Maybe someday I will come into full spiritual bloom.  The more I look, the more I see.  It is God who gives the capacity to look, to desire to see.  This is one of those precious mornings that it is more evident.







This would be a great place to put in the picture of my stringer of fish. I have no evidence of fish in the lake today.  I'll leave you with the ruins of an outhouse that has a beautiful view of the lake out its window instead.  We ought to be able to make something meaningful out of that..

Perhaps on the next trip there will be more catching than fishing.  As you know, what you don't catch you don't have to clean.  I did catch a glimpse of myself though. The muck and the blooms all run together.  With the day is a fresh sense of life's potential.

The solitude has done its job.  Time to go to work.