belly fishing

When I was 13 years old, I began fishing in Cole Creek. I fished it for years without ever catching a fish. Sometime after I began driving, my friend Glen came fishing with me. I took my usual spots and Glen went upstream. Twenty to 30 minutes later Glen came walking back with 2 or 3 fish – I don’t exactly remember how many. I do remember he caught fish – in Cole Creek.

I said to Glen, “There are no fish in this creek.” After a bit of discussion, Glen taught me how to fish for trout in Cole Creek. He didn’t walk along the edge like I did for 3 plus years. He walked far away from the stream. He made sure no fish could see him. When he saw a deep whole in the creek where fish like to live (or if the water flowed under the bank), he would approach the stream. He got low and pretty much slid on his belly to the creek’s bank – just up stream from the hole. He would cast down and let the lure go through or past the spot. Pretty soon – bam – a bite and a fish.

I began to practice belly fishing and it worked. I caught fish – in Cole Creek. Glen taught me how to know the environment where the fish lived. I gained insight into the fish culture.

Just recently, I was remembering this event in my life when I was sitting by a stream talking with God about something John wrote: “My prayer is not for [my disciples] alone, I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message . . .” I was talking with him about this verse and about some man-made ponds upstream that a group wanted to spend a great deal of money on so that they could stock them with fish. I started thinking: stream, pond, stream, pond. Why should we spend thousands of dollars for a pond.

Everyone knows why you make ponds in the Rocky Mountains (where I was at) of Colorado. This is not a plea for the environment (although that was part of my discussion with God). What happened, or what I think God spoke to me, is what this story is about. Because I asked him, and myself, is this what my church is like?

Is my church like a man-made pond where I pay someone else to go to the streams, catch or trap the fish, artificially raise their young, throw them in a pond and then – only then – fish for them? Is this how I see living out a life of faith to be? Or am I willing to go to where the fish are at, get on my belly, get dirty and in the culture and living environment in order to get the job done? I am afraid I lived life with the first way of thinking but believe it is time to start belly fishing.

Jesus prayer was not for just his disciples. It was for those who will believe because of a message we bring to them in their culture and environment. It is not about suits and ties, or about buildings and lawns, or the right size parking lot (although that helps). It is not about comfortable ponds – even though I want it to be. It is about going to the streams. It is about belly fishing.