Fishing

Attentive. Prepared. Hopeful. Anxious. Grounded. Present. These were some of the traits we saw from fishing that applied to fishing and waiting for God (a phrase from Psalm 130). Good conversation. Also a thank you send off for all the musical and personal gifts shared with us by Harriet.

My favorite comment of the morning. I sat in the sanctuary with a fishing pole, line out, waiting, asking,

"What am I doing?"

"You're doing it wrong!"

And, I was.

They told me I didn't have my finger on the line to see if there were any strikes. (Thankfully, no one told me I was doing it wrong -- that there is no fishable water anywhere inside the church. Think about it.) Anyway, it was an instructive mistake because that is what we do with God. We ask God a question and then we sit around waiting without anything in motion that would catch a signal if it was sent. We don't know how to listen, who to listen to, or what to listen for.

As I am trying to learn how to fish, that is what I am hearing. Fisherfolk don't just throw lines endlessly into the water. The people that are talking to me know there are fish where they are fishing. That's not the problem, getting them to strike is. Not so for me, I have no idea how to tell if a fish is around. That's how most people pray. They have no idea whether God is around, they just float requests and questions into space and wait to trip over something.

What do you need to learn about how to pray?

picture found at http://www.pinx.dk/photoblog/images/fishing_man.jpg