Wading In

Something from the tackle box:

       Jesus’ favorite disciple told Peter, “It’s the Lord!”  When Simon heard that it was the Lord, he put on his clothes that he had taken off while he was working.  Then he jumped into the water.  The boat was only about a hundred yards from shore.  So the other disciples stayed in the boat and dragged the net full of fish.

       When the disciples got out of the boat, they saw some bread and a charcoal fire with fish on it.  Jesus told his disciples, “Bring some of the fish you just caught.”  Simon Peter got back into the boat and dragged the net to shore.  In it were one hundred and fifty-three large fish, but still the net did not rip.

       Jesus said, “Come and eat!”  But none of the disciples dared ask who he was.  They knew he was the Lord.  Jesus took the bread in his hands and gave some of it to his disciples.  He did the same with the fish.    (John 21:7-13 CEV)

 

       In my last story, ‘Seeing Into the Water,’ I wrote about how I like to look into the water with my own eyes when I fish.  I like to see for myself what’s going on under the surface and then use my God given abilities to make good decisions about how best to proceed with the fishing.  At the end of the story I tried to draw some parallels between this practice and how God has equipped us to deal with much in our lives using our own abilities.

       God has seen to it that we can do well for ourselves and, if we do so, we will tend to prosper physically, materially and spiritually, all by way of our own observations, decisions and actions.  This God-given self reliance ability generally works quite well for us, – until, – of course, – it doesn’t – because we just can’t see into the water of our life, - or we don’t have the experience and knowledge necessary to make good decisions based on what we do see, - or – we just don’t have what it takes to do what we know ought to be done once we’ve made a good decision.

       We can all do a lot with what we’ve been given, and often do it very well, but we can’t do it all!  Even the best fishermen among us, who know and understand the waters of their particular lives the best, need to constantly be listening for and trusting in the voice of the Lord telling them to try fishing off the other side of their boat for a change. 

       With this story I’d like to go a step further with that idea and talk about actually getting into the water to fish. 

the shallows by the chapel

       I like to actually get right into the water when I fish.  I’m often in the water wearing waders, or just some shorts and water shoes if the water is warm enough.  In Lake Odessa I am almost famous for fishing in the shallows down by the chapel where M-50 bends around the east end of Jordan Lake on the edge of town.  There are some good sand bars that will allow you to wade out forty yards from shore to fish, sometimes even more if you’re careful, and I have fished out there a lot over the years. 

the road and traffic on M50

       A constant stream of people going past in their trucks and cars can see me every time I am out there, especially if they are coming into town from the east and get a better view of the lake than those leaving town.  I have gotten a lot of honks and waves from both friends and strangers passing by on the road while I have been wading in those shallows, especially if I happened to have a fish on the line!  I used to catch a lot of fish in that spot, but that was back when I was pretty much the only one wading in there. 

       The problem with catching fish in front of an audience is that everyone else wants to get in on the action!  Who can blame them?  The first summer I fished down by the chapel, about twelve years ago, I pretty much had those sand bottom shallows all to myself.  The second summer that I waded in the water down there I met a couple of other folks wading around from time to time as well.  The third summer it was quite a few more than a couple.  Now, I always drive by the spot first to check it out and see if I can get into the water without pushing someone else out, which I would never do. 

       To be honest, while it’s still a convenient spot, a place where you might still see me wading in the water every now and then, the fishing in the shallows down by the chapel has not been very good for several years.  We’ve had horrible algae blooms on Jordan Lake for the past three years in a row and the east end of the lake is where the prevailing winds blow a lot of the floating green scum that gets churned up by the boats and jet-skis on the lake.  A clean surface is a must for fly-fishing and in recent years it’s been hard to find one in the shallow waters of the east end, or anywhere else on Jordan Lake for that matter, from late May through early September.  So I’ve had to find some other good spots to wade in the water to fish like that. 

taken from the middle of Tinker's Creek looking downstream

       One spot I’ve been using a lot in recent summers I’ll call Tinker’s Creek.  That’s not its real name.  I couldn’t do anything about the people in cars watching me catch a lot of fish down by the chapel, but I’m not obligated to tell people where I’m catching fish if they don’t see me. 

       Tinker’s creek is a pretty decent little trout stream less than half an hour’s drive from where I live, and I want to tell you some things about it, and about wading in it, before I draw out the some life lessons in this story.   

       Tinker’s creek isn’t a big river.  It’s only about as wide as a pick-up truck pulling a boat trailer is long in most of the places that I fish in it, and most of the time it runs shallow enough that I only have to put on hip boots to do so, which is a lot more comfortable than wearing chest waders. 

trout hang out in the shade of the covered bridge

       For much of the length of Tinker’s creek the trees and other plant life along the banks is pretty dense, too dense to go fly-fishing for certain.  But there is a half-mile stretch through some open country where the dedicated members of the local Trout Unlimited chapter, an organization I belong to, have worked to improve the fly-fishing prospects.  That stretch does offer a dozen or so spots where you can get into the water and practice that gentile art of working the buggy whip if you wish.  And so that’s where I go, because that’s what I love to do. 

       Now even though Tinker’s creek isn’t very wide or deep you do have to be careful when you are wading in it. The bottom of the stream varies between large rocks, sandy gravel, and softer spots where underwater weed beds have taken hold.  The water can runs pretty swiftly through this sections of the stream, which is something that trout like, and there are lots of hazards in the water like big rocks and deep ruts, or fallen logs with branches reaching out underneath the surface, which are also things that trout like, but all of which can trip you up.

       People who don’t know much might think that fly-fishing in Tinker’s creek is all about what you can do with the pole and line held in your hands, but it’s not.  It has every bit as much to do with what you do with your legs and feet.

some tricky footing just ahead

       You have to be very careful where you stand and where you step.  It is very easy to loose your balance in that swift water and go down unless you’ve got your feet firmly underneath you at all times.  The shallow water makes it less likely that you’ll go under and drown if you slip, but it also makes it far more likely that you will break an arm or a leg, or even crack your skull on one of those half or barely submerged rocks that are all over the place.  You need to constantly know what you are doing with the bottom half of your body if you are fishing IN the water, because you can get hurt pretty easily if you aren’t always paying attention to what’s going on around your shins. 

       People who see me fishing in the waters of Tinker’s creek might say, “Why don’t you just fish from the banks, like most people do?  It certainly would be easier, and there’s a number of good spots along here where you can do that, even with your fly rod!” 

       And I would have to answer, “You’re right!”  And sometimes I do just that, especially in the early spring before a lot of the bank foliage has grown up very high, but as anyone who gets into the water to fish will tell you, “It’s just not the same, and it’s definitely not as good!”  When you’re actually IN the waters of a stream you can move around and get angles on where that big fish is waiting to ambush that next mayfly that comes along that you just cannot get fishing from shore.

       A fisherman can fish from wherever they want to fish, even from the high and dry, and they can catch fish doing it that way too.  Maybe even catch lots of fish.  But, in some cases and some circumstances, the fishing is going to be better – and far more rewarding – if you are willing to get into the water to do it. 

Something to take home in your creel:

       God has been calling his people to get right down into the water of life with him for the longest time. Maybe it goes all the way back to the Genesis story of God asking Noah to build a big boat and save mankind, along with the rest of the animal creation, from the coming horrors of the flood.  But, for whatever reason, more often than not, it seems as if God has a struggle in getting us to actually take that plunge and do it! 

       From the time of Abraham down to the time of Jesus’ disciples, God’s chosen people are never too keen on getting their feet wet.  They don’t mind wells for drinking water, pools for ritual body washing, even small lakes to fish from boats on, but just ask them to cross a river that doesn’t have a bridge over it, and it seems as if God chose the most reluctant race of people to get their feet wet that he could have saddled himself with. 

 the Phoenicians had a navy, but not the Israelites

       I can understand why God had to part the waters of the Red Sea for Moses and the children of Israel to pass through, that was a SEA after all, but why did he have to do the same thing for Joshua and the people to cross the Jordan River into the promised Land?  My Goodness, there’s any number of places where that river is not much wider or deeper than Tinker’s Creek!  

     King David may have commanded great armies but he never commanded a great navy, or any navy at all that we know of, despite having a hundred miles of coastline to defend from surrounding enemies with long naval warfare traditions, people like the Egyptians, Philistines, Phoenicians and Greeks.  Some hardy seafarers would have served the nation of Israel well, - but nooooo! – Well, I guess you can’t have a navy if none of your citizens are willing to be a sailor in it!  You can’t even draft a navy when your sturdy young men are all crying, “Jonah gambled on going to sea once and look what happened to him!  For cryin’ out loud, that’s where Leviathan lives!”   

       Nope, God did not pick a very water-friendly bunch of folk to start working out his plan of salvation for the world with.  But despite this God has been calling his people to get into the water with him all along, because that’s where the action is.  Eventually, by the end of the biblical saga, people started to take heed. 

       First, John the Baptist comes along and starts calling people to get right with God by getting right into the Jordan River with him, - and the people came in droves – to get all wet – on purpose!  And then Jesus comes along and picks Galilean fisherman as his very first followers, men who are probably among the least water fearful people in that whole aqua-phobic nation! 

        It is true that those first disciples did insist on calling their workplace the SEA of Galilee when everyone else around the region just called it Lake Tiberius, (because that’s what it is, a lake not much larger than Houghton Lake here in Michigan).  Still, it is a big enough lake that when a storm does come up the waves will toss you around pretty roughly if you’re in a small fishing boat, maybe even swamp you, so there was at least some degree of danger associated with being a Galilean fisherman that put Peter, Andrew, James, John and Nathanial, fishermen all, head and shoulders above your average ancient Hebrew when it came to water comfort levels.  And Peter at least could even swim! – (or so it would seem from our tackle box scripture passage, - another story of Peter going out to Jesus on the water might imply a difference of opinion on this point.)

       So Jesus first brought to himself those who would be the most likely to get out of the safe, dry boats of their life, to get wet in the sometimes murky and threatening SEA of life – for him – and with him.  I think that is at least a part of what our baptism symbolizes.  It’s dangerous out there in the waters of life, maybe even deadly, but that’s where God calls you with the assurance that if you go, trusting in him, it will be OK come what may. 

       Even Paul tells us this is part of it.  He writes; Don’t you know that all who share in Christ Jesus – by being baptized – also share in his death? – When we were baptized, we died and were buried with Christ.  We were baptized so that we could live a new life, as Christ was raised to life by the glory of God the Father. – If we share in Jesus’ death by being baptized, we will be raised to life with him.  (Romans 6:3-5 CEV)

       Of course, every fisherman will have to come to this conclusion for himself someday by jumping out of the safe boat, or wading in off of the solid banks, and commit himself to the uncertain, bubbling and gurgling waters of life – and death – that God calls us all to jump into by faith, and cross over through in his care, to the feast that’s waiting for us all on the other shore.