The View From Here

I had the opportunity this weekend to go with a bunch of guys from church on a trip to the metroplex area, to Cabela’s.  Is there a better guy trip?  I submit that there is not!  We all piled in a van and headed out early in the morning.  The purpose behind this trip was for people to get some things they needed for the annual fly fishing trip that men from my church take.

Now, I have never been fly fishing so I don’t have the slightest clue what most of the words these people are saying mean.  One of the things I thought I understood was what a fly was.  I was wrong.  Upon entering the fly fishing section of Cabela’s I encountered hundreds of these:

Don’t be thrown off by the size of the picture.  These guys are small.  Apparently there are many people out there who tie them by hand.  They put all of these tiny elements together to make an imitation of a food item that a fish would just love to eat.  On top of that, when you are fly fishing, you have to know exactly what the fish are looking for at that moment.  It was absolutely amazing to me to see all of the different ways created to tempt a fish to bite. As I was looking at all of these flies, something hit me.  No, it wasn’t a truck.

Jesus draws parallels many times in scripture between fishing and evangelizing.  We are supposed to be “fishers of men”.  The thought that occurred to me is that as much as we are fishers of men, our enemy is as well, just a different kind.

Looking at all of these different flies made me realize that however many tools were here to catch fish, Satan must have an equal or greater number of tools to catch us.  Just like fish, we are prone to different sins at different times and the enemy has just the tool to catch us with.

In 1 Peter 5:8 we see that we should “be of sober-minded and watchful” because “[our] adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”  We might also think of him as a fisherman with just the right lure to catch us off guard. Sometimes they can even look like truth.  Being watchful is paramount when our enemy has so many ways to catch us.  Be on the alert!  What looks like what you want just might be that lure that will trap you.

Brian