A Word About Casting
An old fishing reel sits on top of one of the shelves in my office. My dad gave it to me when I was only ten years old. I don’t suppose he could have given me anything I would be more thrilled with than that reel, because it went on the end of a rod. And a rod and reel in the hands of a ten-year-old boy can produce magical moments.
My brother and I went fishin’ a lot when we were kids. But my dad was kind of a stickler on us being good at what he called, ‘Throwin’ your rig.’ I think a more scientific or accurate word would be ‘casting.’ My dad wanted my brother and me to be proficient at casting our rigs. You see, when you fish for bass, it’s important to know how to flip your bait into areas where bass like to hang out. Around old stumps, or clumps of buried limbs. Maybe a pocket of perfectly quiet water, three or four feet from the shoreline. Hit that spot, and you may get a hit on your lure. But three feet too far, and your bait’s on the bank. Two feet to the right or left, and you may be hung up on a limb. “Learn to throw your rig,” said my dad. And so, we’d tie a sinker on the end of our line, go out in the backyard and pretend we were casting that sinker at some sure-fire spot where a bass was just waiting for our bait.
Of course, once we were on the water, we didn’t have any guarantees that our practice in the backyard would produce a fish. Even though we got pretty good at casting, and our bait ended up in the spot we were aiming at, the expectations and the disappointments were just a part of fishin’. Sometimes you landed what you were fishin’ for. Sometimes you didn’t. But the casting never stopped.
In kingdom living, there aren’t any shelves. I know some people who feel like they’ve been placed on a shelf, by some event or circumstance or even some other person who’s set them on a shelf like that old reel I noticed the other day. In kingdom living, I will tell a truth, for sure: The fishing for men is always good, as long as the casting never stops. Sometimes the catching seems like it’s not what it could be. But the fishing is always good, as long as you keep casting.
The writer of Heb.10 encouraged those early believers who were doing their best to live impactful lives. When it seemed like they didn’t have much to show for their effort, he wrote “Cast not away your confidence” That’s another way of sayin’ “Keep fishin’. Keep your line in the water. You never know what God’s gonna do at the end of that line in the water.
And speaking of water? Eccl 11:1 says, “Cast your bread upon the waters” You won’t always see immediate results. But I think my dad was right: the more I practice the fine art of casting my faith out into a world in desperate need, the better I get at having impact in the places that need the Bread of Life the most.