Since our misadventure the first day, Clark and I have had some good fishing. Wednesday afternoon we fished lakes on a golf course and caught a lot of bass and I also caught an 8-10 lb catfish. Today we fished a lake about 20 minutes from Burlington and had a really good day. We caught about 30 bass. The largest was 3 lb. Clark caught the most and I caught the biggest. Here is some picture evidence.
Video of catfish catch.
Ann and I are visiting Clark and Vanessa in Iowa. Clark and I went fishing on the Mississippi River yesterday morning. It became quite an adventure. Clark’s boat and motor were given to him and the motor is 35+ years old and has been a little unreliable. We drove up river and launched about a mile or so below a dam where we were planning to fish. After going a half- mile the motor quit. We had a trolling motor so we fished and moved up stream toward the dam. It was slow but we got to our destination. After fishing unsuccessfully, it became apparent that a storm was brewing and we decided to head back because of the lack of a motor. Surprisingly, Clark was able to get the motor running and we got about half-mile before it quit again. Clark’s daughter, Lacey, called to tell us that a tornado watch was in effect and 60 mph winds with hail and lightning were moving in.
The rain started and we were plodding along. Thankfully we were headed downstream. We had a headwind going out and were anticipating its benefit on our return but unfortunately the storm reversed the wind and we were facing a strong headwind. Getting wetter by the minute and lightning starting to pick up, we were beginning to regret our choices. Not having any real alternative, we made our way to the boat ramp as the rain got heavier. We made it to the boat ramp and got the boat loaded. Just as we got into the truck to pull away, torrential rains and high winds came in.
I was thinking about the times that I have heard about people in these sort of circumstances that ended badly and would say something like how could anybody be that stupid. Fortunately, Clark and I, being above average were able to survive.
So here is what I learned from our great adventure. Do not fish on the Mississippi River in an old boat with an unreliable motor with weather forecasts of severe weather during the time you are going to be fishing. It was a good thing that Clark and me are above average stupid.
For several years I have been following the faith journey of Jason Zarharaides through his blogs. I have commented in the past how much his thinking and journey have paralleled my own. His life circumstances have been and are much different than mine. His journey has taken a path that is far afield from where I find myself. Inspite of that, his words resonate deeply with me. Here is his most recent post in which I found much similarity to my own journey.
“So soon as Christians agree to take responsibility for the outcome of history, we have agreed to do violence.” [Stanley Hauerwas]
This thought is worth some serious reflection on both political and personal levels: It is neither the Christian’s nor the Church’s task to rule this world nor make our mark on history. And the moment we shoulder that responsibility, we have agreed to do violence. Now this does not mean we simply huddle in a corner and gnaw on our fingernails with dread and worry. Rather, we are to take up our proper responsibility, marked first by the conviction of God’s sovereignty over life and second by the “downward Way” of humility.
In hindsight, it seems my entire adult Christian life was aimed, although unintentionally, at obscuring the true Gospel. I had one fiery passion. I wanted to change the world. I wanted the Church to change the world. I wanted to build a local church with members who would join its leadership in changing the world. I taught and programmed our church with the intent on helping others change the world. My life had purpose and I had big hairy audacious goals. And I was a man of violence.
Sure, if you had confronted me with that accusation, I would have denied it. Angrily denied it. I was doing God’s work of bringing his kingdom to earth. So please get the heck out of my way. And those around me suffered violence. Sure I didn’t physically abuse anyone. But my wife and kids had a husband and father that was constantly absent. And when I was physically present with them, I was usually mentally and
emotionally absent as I mulled over ways of improving my leadership and ministry or impatient with them for taking up my valuable time. My volunteer leadership suffered violence as I subtly forced my agenda upon their ministries or downright replaced them when they didn’t live up to my expectations. I mentally categorized people by what they could offer to our church by their strengths, wealth, and gifts. And I suffered violence at my own hands through stress, imbalance and a lack of any inward formation.Now, I wasn’t a task master. I was a really nice man of violence. I tried treating people with respect. I tried to protect people from overworking in and overgiving to the church. I tried to pray for and care for everyone who came into and served our church. But my relationship with everyone was primarily shaped by my goals of building a church that would change the world. And so, my life and ministry incarnated the way of violence and took its toll on those around me.
I’m happy to say that God is rescuing me from that path. I can thoroughly appreciate Hauerwas’ quote:
“We can thus take the time to live in history as God’s people who have nothing more important to do
than to have and care for children.” I have been experiencing and continue to experience a worldview change. I no longer live each day with the passion to change the world. The well-being and care of my wife and my kids are the most important things to me. I “simply” (in quotes because it’s not a simple thing) want to be a good man to my family, friends, coworkers and any others God brings my way. I have a long way to go in this goal. And the only way to truly accomplish this is to enter into and follow Christ into his humility — the downward Way.I used to measure my personal success by the amount of people I was influencing through conversations, preaching and writing. I’m now understanding what Fr Stephen says, that our goals should be measured by the “measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:13).
I still have goals, but they are very, very different than my previous ones. One of my personal goals is for my wife and kids to look back upon their lives and know that they were genuinely, unconditionally and constantly loved by me. That may sound simple, especially in a world that is wrestling with some dire issues. But in reality, authentic love is such a rare thing today. It doesn’t happen naturally because it requires a certain kind of life that most avoid.
This isn’t right. School shouldn’t start in the middle of August. The summer has been great and we have enjoyed the grandkids but it was too short. Part of the problem is that they didn’t get out until late last school year because of snow days. Melissa and her kids are coming to Wilmore to day to visit their cousins and we hope to have a back to school celebration. The celebration is more for the moms than the kids I suppose. It will be an exciting school year. Ryan is starting high school and Jerod is starting middle school.
Ann and I plan to spend a few days with Clark and Vanessa in Iowa next week. Hope to do some fishing. I have not had much luck fishing this summer. I blame it on the unsettled weather.