Keep Fishing

Keep Fishing

I watched young men fishing for sturgeon on the Willamette River just downstream from Willamette Falls. Sometimes one of these powerful fish would take the bait and a long, hard struggle would ensue between the catcher and the caught.


Meanwhile the boat - in which the fisherman waged his battle against the unseen creature at the end of his line - tossed and twisted chaotically in the river’s swirling currents.


However the boat pitched, the fisherman adjusted his balance deftly to keep his feet against a force quite capable of pulling him into the water headfirst.

This haphazard churning of water seemed a metaphor for the way emotional experiences and feelings arise from within. One day a person feels up, the next down - without anything having happened to cause a change.


And when that “down” feeling comes, there is often a desire or attempt to do something about it – to suppress it, deflect it, basically remedy it somehow since it seems to be “wrong.”

But watching this elemental fishing scene conveyed a message:

Accept the watery currents as they come, don’t resist them.

And just keep fishing!

Fishing for what? Well, Jesus said,

“Follow me and I will make you fishers of men” (Mat. 4:19).

Seems like the first person that needs to be caught is . . . me.