Float Fishing. Did You Love Me?

Sunday is a day I share a little of my soul. Enjoy.

 I, Chef Tess, went float-fishing with my glorious and fearless sister Auntie Em on my last trip to Utah. If you've never been, it is probably one of the coolest things I've ever done...with a fishing pole. It involves  a float able personal chair-type raft, strapping flippers on your feet, and wearing wader plastic pants.  Yes. I wore plastic pants.

Fashion-wise, it isn't glamorous. Relaxation wise, it is the best thing ever!  Early in the morning before the sun ever peeks over the horizon, Em was up. Quietly we drove to a nearby lake and unpacked the floaters from our cars. I had been non-stop for 5 days and it was a much needed and welcomed adventure with my dear sister.

 I call her my fearless sister for a reason. Worms fear her.  She's got a hook-baiting gift.

 She also floats with two fishing poles. I'm lucky to keep track of a one.

  We floated on a quiet and peaceful lake in the early morning for just over 2 hours. Fish were jumping and dancing all around us and it was remarkable to be in that serenity...and never catch a single fish. Nope. Not one. Mind you, it was amazingly relaxing to float. I loved every minute. I didn't love that my sister, who loves fishing more than any woman I have ever met...wasn't catching fish.   Even as we watched on the lake as other dear souls around us were pulling large and delicious fish out of the water, Em cheered for them. Em asked what kind of bait they were using. We kept fishing. Even when we were at the end of our adventure and I was unstrapping flippers from my feet...Em had her poles still in the water. Not a single fish. No. Not one! 

I know it was just "one of those fishing trips" that ends up without a catch. Even with the best intentions and bait, you sometimes don't bring home dinner. However, when I listened to a sermon about the ancient Apostles-gone-Fishermen on the subject of  Love given by Jeffrey R. Holland called The First Great Commandment. it all became very personal. Any fisherman who's ever caught a fish, can relate to it. Any Christian who's ever lived can relate to the deep and abiding question, "Lovest thou me more than these?"

 

"My beloved brothers and sisters, I am not certain just what our experience will be on Judgment Day, but I will be very surprised if at some point in that conversation, God does not ask us exactly what Christ asked Peter: “Did you love me?” I think He will want to know if in our very mortal, very inadequate, and sometimes childish grasp of things, did we at least understand one commandment, the first and greatest commandment of them all—“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.”¹³ And if at such a moment we can stammer out, “Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee,” then He may remind us that the crowning characteristic of love is always loyalty.

“If ye love me, keep my commandments,”¹⁴ Jesus said. So we have neighbors to bless, children to protect, the poor to lift up, and the truth to defend. We have wrongs to make right, truths to share, and good to do. In short, we have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love of the Lord. We can’t quit and we can’t go back. After an encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before. The Crucifixion, Atonement, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ mark the beginning of a Christian life, not the end of it. It was this truth, this reality, that allowed a handful of Galilean fishermen-turned-again-Apostles without “a single synagogue or sword”¹⁵ to leave those nets a second time and go on to shape the history of the world in which we now live."

 

I'm thankful for each new day...and more importantly, for the love of God that passes all my limited understanding. It allows me to move onward, look upward and do all that I can to serve my God. It is my trust in abiding Grace that helps me want to live a good Christian life and follow my Savior.

 

There it is. Have a wonderful new week.

 

Always My Very Best,

Your Friend in Christ, Chef Tess.