"Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once
he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has
promised to those who love Him." James 1:12
It was a beautiful day out on Lake Limestone, up where my
daddy's cabin was set. My brother, Larry, and I took off in daddy's boat, to a
section of "underwater woods".... stumps, logs floating around, you
know the kind; a perfect spot for fish to hide.
We were trolling along through the thick. Larry was set on
the bow, I at the stern. Now, I pride myself on my first weapon of choice being
a bait casting reel, because they take more skill. Those of you that are
unfamiliar, it's a casting reel where the spool is exposed and, when casting,
you apply slight pressure with your thumb, while the spool is releasing the
line, to hold proper tension.
For my fellow anglers, that use these, you know what it
means to "backlash". I hit one of those moments! It was a mother of
all "bird's nests" in my reel. So, I begin the painful job of trying
to untangle the line on the spool, my floating lure trailing along in the
water. You know that's just a perfect moment for.... BUMP! Yup, I felt it,
first HOPING that my lure brushed a piece of dead wood. Then, my line really
started dancing around in the water. Of course! I'm trying to unravel a mess on
my reel and THAT'S the moment a fish decides to strike!
I look down at my reel, then at my dancing line dipping into
the water, back down at my reel, again. "But...but...but..." reeling
in my line, even more, spelled certain "death" of my line; an even
more painstaking task to clear up. "What did you do?" you ask? What
do you think I did? I cursed the fish then reeled his scaly butt into the
boat!! A nice bass! Into the live well he went, and a good twenty minutes
following of pulling out my line and having to cut the tangled mess out.... a
good section of my line, wasted.... BUT, I got the bass!
God puts us under trial, continuously. He knows how to throw
that wrinkle in a challenge and asks us: "How bad do you want it?"
"Are you willing to take the struggle, or just give up?" God does not
want us to give up our perseverance as Christians.
There are times that we will feel ourselves losing our
resolve. When that happens, we need to ask that we may remain strong and
focused (see Hebrews 12:12-13).
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