Stories Beyond Us

A couple of weeks ago I learned (or was reminded of) a lesson: sometimes things are beyond our control. I was reminded of all of this when I was fishing at my cabin. All week long I had been fishing and hoping to get a big catch. Mid-week I caught a big pickerel, but it was not big enough to keep, and this was pretty disappointing. I caught him on a new lure, that I then lost after I caught him. Going back to the store, I bought that lure again, and then again lost it on another pickerel a few days later. Things just didn't seem to be going my way exactly.

Well it all then came down to my last night of fishing, and I decided to use a rubber worm that normally works well. So I went out and began fishing. Only about a half an hour into it, I snagged a huge bass. I started to reel it in with a huge smile on my face. It jumped out of the water and gave me a huge fight, but when it got up to my boat it swam underneath, and snapped my line. GAH! It got away. I was a bit disappointed, but it was the beginning of the night and I decided to try out the other side of the lake. This turned out to be a good idea cause when I got there on my first cast I caught a 20 inch pickerel. I was so excited. I took some pictures and then hooked him on my stringer. As I was about to fish some more I heard my mom yelling for dinner so I had to go back in.

Returning to the water after dinner I decided to go around the lake the opposite way. The whole time my mind was not really on fishing. The line was cast and reeled in time and time again, but in my mind I had already caught 'the fish of the week'. A hour or so passed and I found myself deciding to cast one more time where the huge bass got away. So I paddled my kayak down to that end of the lake and cast my line out. From the moment I let the line out I thought my hopes would be in vain (and I would have been ok with that) but I felt the line tighten. Watching the pole, suddenly the tip yanked down toward the water. I began reeling hard. Suddenly, I saw what I did not expect: the huge bass, on my line again.

I pulled out the net, and scooped him up. I had him, he was in my boat. Picking him up I took the measuring tape out and measure him: 19 inches, and he must have been around 4 lbs. Amazing! How could I have asked for more! Two huge fish in one night! I took him and put him on the stringer, and took a moment to stare at him. Holding the stringer up in the air I looked at him against the setting sun, but suddenly something crazy happened. This fish did the ultimate Houdini act. He proceeded to flip if tale to the side, undid my brand new metal stringer, and fell into the water... free...

I sat there in shock. How could this happen? I was in awe one moment and the next I was in horror! My fish had got away, and for once it wasn't my fault. I did everything right. I reeled him in, I put him in the net, I measure him, I put him on the stringer, and even tested it to make sure it was firm, but none of that mattered. There was a malfunction in the stringer that was beyond my control. And worst of all, in all the excitement I forgot to even take a picture. gah!

Since this day, I've been thinking about how life is often so much like this. We do everything right, and yet we remember that things are so often beyond us. This has been happening in ministry to me so much in the past few weeks: I planned youth group and got a leader to run it while I was on vacation, and no one came out; I promoted our 'Gathering' on Saturday and we got 13 kids; I ordered an Indo Board for the fair and didn't get it until the fair was half way through that day. Things don't always work the way we expect them.

However, I always find an amazing tale on the tail end of these things. (oh what a horrible pun). 13 kids impacted a community in more ways than I could imagine and not having an Indo Board for half the day gave me more time to introduce myself to students and talk with people. We handed out 200 flyers, and when the board did get there, kids fell in love with it (and only a few fell off of it). God works sometimes in ways that are beyond us, but that doesn't mean we should stop finding importance in the moment. Sometimes he uses disappointments to create the biggest and best stories of all.