The Art of Casting

For the past two years, on the last weekend of February, my man and his dad have entered one of men's ultimate competitions...the Lake Conroe Big Bass Tournament! They absolutely love it! They talk about it for months, plot and plan their attack on the lake's bass population, and even take off the Friday before the big weekend to "practice"!

This year's tournament threw them for a little loop though. When they woke up bright and early that exciting Saturday morning, they found that God had provided them with a test, a test as fisherman and as hard core men. That test came in the form of wind and low temperatures. Wind blowing about 35 mph and temperatures down in the 30's! That type of weather may be durable on land, but put yourself on a bass boat in the middle of a lake and it takes "true" fisherman to conquer it!

How did they conquer it, you ask. Well, they conquered it with a true passion for fishing, but mostly with several (and I mean several) layers of clothes, plus a pigheaded determination not to be out done by the weather! They fished for two solid days and had a blast!

As far as the actual tournament goes, the prize went to the 5 biggest fish caught each hour, plus a prize for the biggest fish of the tournament. They caught lots of fish over the two days. The highlight though was when at one point on Saturday, my man hooked into a HUGE fish! He fought and fought to get it in the boat. His dad said that he could tell Jeff was seeing the words "Winning Prize Fish" running through his head. Once the fish was in the boat, yes, it was a HUGE fish. Over 10 pounds (the winning fish was just under 11 pounds)! There was one slight problem though. This was a BASS fishing tournament. Jeff landed a 10+ pound CATFISH! His dad said the look on Jeff's face when he saw those whiskers on that fish was priceless! His wife and son were so proud of our fisherman, even it was a catfish!

Here is a video of them fishing with white caps rocking them all over the lake! At several points while watching the video, we kept thinking his dad was going for a chilly swim!



Jeff's 10 pounder!





I saw this in the Haskell newspaper and thought of the guys that weekend!



I'll end this already long blog post with a quick spiritual Truth I ran across a week or so after Jeff entered that bass tournament. It was found in our church's devotional Walk with God. It was called "The Art of Casting". Being married to a fisherman, I hear a lot about how casting is not just throwing a line out into the water but it has an art to it.

Spiritually, the Word says in Psalm 55:22, "Cast your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall." The devotional said, "What does it mean to cast your cares on the Lord? We really need to know. It's the difference between faith and fear. It makes no sense to cast our cares on God and then take them up again. When we trust Him with our concerns, we ask Him to manage them. We acknowledge our own futility, and we rely on His power to resolve them. We actively watch, not ignorantly wait. We expectantly believe, not aggressively intervene. We act when He says to act and sit still when He says to sit. We obey His instructions because we know He's in charge, and we're comfortable with that. We can go to sleep at night knowing we can do nothing more effective than acknowledging His wisdom, power, love, and Lordship. We can wake up without a a single burden, because our burdens are on His shoulders. We refuse to micromanage. We will hope only in Him, because He is where our cares have been cast."

Casting our cares on the Lord is definitely an art and a process to learn how to do it as a continual way of life. I honestly don't do it well. It's so natural for me to cast everything on Him and then turn around and reel them back into my own hands. Pride. Fear. Control. The list of reasons goes on. Despite failing over and over, I pray I can move each day closer to faith and away from fear. That's where His genuine peace and power resides.

Who knew you could actually learn something from fishing! :-)