The big fish: Where and when is our catch?

Sometimes we don’t have to launch out into the deep and cast our nets or let them down into the water for a catch. But at times we do need to do that in order to get our prey. Regardless, we pray all the time that we’re able to meet out set targets.

We pray and ever remain hopeful that our good thoughts and goals wouldn’t go unfulfilled. And we pray that even when we fall double or triple times we will be able to get back on our feeble feet and our little hands wouldn’t rest till they’re called to eternity.

I’d relieved my co-worker at 4pm (Pacific Time, 7pm ET) on Wednesday August 30. After the brief, John Bacon fished a cell phone out of his breast pocket amid smiles. I thought he was going to show me a photograph of his 1979 1200 FXS lowrider—Harley Davidson motor bike. But it was something different. He’d something to share. He’d caught two fish in the Puyallup River on Monday 28 August 2017.

Both were salmon. One was pink the other was silver. The latter (silver) weighed about 8 pounds and approximately 24 inches long while the former (pink) weighed roughly 6 pounds and about 18 inches long, John told me.

And it was the story of the Silver Salmon that triggered this write-up. It was that story of that silver slippery aquatic creature that stuck with me. Yes, it was that story that might be viewed by many as inconsequential.

Ever remember the encounter Jesus had with Simon and his brothers?

The account is that Simon and his brothers (John, James and Andrew) had toiled hour after hour yet they caught nothing in Lake Gennesaret. They were tired. They wanted to give up. They’d thrown in the towel. They saw the mission as fruitless. And perhaps it was time to go back home empty handed. Then unexpectedly Jesus appeared.

He already knew their situation. The look on their faces emphasised worry and frustration. Shortly after speaking to them he told Simon: “Put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch.”

I could imagine the face Simon made before he acquiesced to the Lord’s command.

“Master,” Simon replied ‘we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again,” (Luke 5:5).

Verse six (6) of the scripture reads: “And when they had done this, they caught a great multitude of fish, and their net was breaking...”

But the great part of the narrative is that Simon and his brothers from thereon stopped catching ordinary fish. They became fishers of men as they followed Jesus in his ministry.

When and where is our catch? You’ll never know where and when you’d stand tall among the many to be counted. To be seen as a trailblazer, a champion or a winner. When and where you’ll feel the glory and not feel sorry about what you’ve been able to accomplish. You’ll never know when and where you’d have your bread fully buttered.

Indeed John Bacon had no idea what was in stored for him when he went down to fish in the Puyallup River in Tacoma Washington last Monday. John does fishing as his hobby and it seems his life is synonymous with the limbless guys with gills and fins living wholly in water.

Some days he makes a catch somedays he catches nothing. But the past Monday was unlike the others. It seemed like a miracle to John or it was just sheer coincidence. According to John it was a typical day for him. The Sun was hitting hard so he decided to go down there and do what he loves to do.

“I I’d earlier failed to make any catch for about an hour. But what followed a few minutes after I’d thrown in my line left me in perplexity. I felt smack bogged,” he told me.

“Suddenly I felt the fish on the end of the line. My hook had hooked the eye of the swivel of the sinker of another line. I knew I had caught a fish. I pulled it and still I couldn’t see the fish but I saw the sinker and finally there it was the big one.”

He said he felt so happy for the catch because it came on unexpected. John is planning to have some good soup with his silver and pink salmon. “I will give half of the big fish to my mom and share the remainder with my neighbour—an 80-something year-old woman,” he told me.

And did you know this wasn’t John’s first, catching a fish in such strange manner. “Several years ago I caught a 30-inch fish that over 10 pounds, “he said.

So now you know sometimes we don’t have to worry much for what we can do and can’t do. Experts in fishing will tell you perhaps to make a good catch you’ll need to observe the following techniques to the letter, which include: hand gathering, angling, and netting spearing, trapping. The irony is that sometimes you can observe all of the techniques above and yet make no catch.

I’m sure Simon and his brothers might’ve observed the fundamental drills about fishing. But they’d laboured in vain for hours until things came to the crunch. Until they encountered Jesus the techniques didn’t matter and they didn’t count. And there was a reason for that. Possibly it had been purposed to happen or probably some causative agent engineered its occurrence.

So just remember today that you can catch your fish sometimes unexpectedly. Someone will come and bless you when you have no clue-- who he’s, where he’s coming from and when the catch is going to happen. Remember, it could be a catch at your job, a catch in your education, a catch in your marriage or relationship, a catch in your finances and many more.

Remember, John’s hook didn’t hook the fish. It rather hooked another hook deep in the water. That presupposes that someone might’ve caught that fish but missed it in the process. You can conclude therefore that it wasn’t meant for him, it was rather meant for John.

It was like when they tossed Jonah out from the boat into the sea. There was a waiting big fish believed to be a whale.Bottom line, always remain focused and keep your head up.