Men that love Silence

My kids and I have really fallen in love with fishing this summer. Once you get the bug, its hard to get it out of your system, there are only a few highs quite like catching a fish in life. The moment the fish takes the bait, and your rod gets pulled down, then the fight begins, its pure adrenaline. Plus, the sun and the water, and being with friends, what a gift.

It led me to contemplate why Jesus chose fisherman as his first apostles. Here are a few reflections that I came up with that may help you in the spiritual life;

1.) Trust- In fishing, and also in the life of faith, you do your best, you set the line as well as you can, you get the proper bait for the fish you want, the best lines and tackle, but at the end of the day, you can't see what is happening under the water, you simply do your best, and trust God to provide. This requires trust, humility and simplicity. We can't worry about the results, we can simply do our best, and trust God to take care of it from there. This leads to great peace, because truth be told, if you do your part, the fish come.

2.) People, and Places- Alcoholics Anonymous has the famous saying about staying sober, or all forms of recovery, take care of people, places and things. In fishing, I've noticed that a huge part of success is going to the right spots, and usually when you get there, there's a lot of other good fisherman around. Life is very similar, we all have a desire for happiness, going to the right places is a huge part of this, and most times we find that there's a lot of people of good will all around those places. It strengthens our trust in man's goodness.

3.) Silence- This was the major point that I came away with, we fished at night once, and the common noise you heard was, shhhhhhhhh. Because we all became aware, that silence was the best chance for success in fishing. I envisioned the apostles, all scolding one another, to keep silent, and I pictured these strong men, who all came to love silence, because it was part of their job, the same is true in life, Faith grows in silence, it gives God the chance to speak to our souls. We need to find time to love silence everyday.

As with so many things in life, God makes enjoyable those things we need to live. We have to eat, so it could have been a drudgery to sustain ourselves, but God made eating something to be enjoyable. Which leads me to the last and best part of fishing, which is eating your catch.