My Life As A Fish Hook

It's not every day a fish hook falls into your shoe.

Let me rewind a bit.

The night is young, a crisp autumn's eve; and there he sits, quiet and still, on a lonely park bench. Staring up into the starless skies above, thinking idly to himself, to God, to no one, really. A small wooden rod lays at his feet. Intrigued, he picks up it, notices the nails stuck into the wood at either end. Curiouser and curiouser, he thinks to himself. He begins the short walk back to his home, swinging the stick by his side. Suddenly, the sensation of cold, slippery.... something... slides its way into his shoe. Violently he throws off the offending article of fashionable footwear and checks it for whatever produced this decidedly slug-like sensation. There! On the ground! A glint of light reflecting off the shape of a.... fish hook?

That's right. A fish hook fell into my shoe. Not even like a wussy, three-pronged baby one. No, this was a serious, not-to-be-screwed-with fish hook. I'm talking serious serious hookageness, here. This thing was fearsome. Now, for me, sharp metal objects materializing inside my comfy, well-worn DC's is not something that happens every day. So here's the deal (non-sappy story-like). I was sitting on a bench this evening, when I noticed a long wooden rod by my feet. It had nails sticking out of both ends. Naturally, being the adventurous type that I am, I decide to keep it as a walking stick for the hike back to my dorm. After the fish hook fell into my shoe, I took a closer look at the piece of wood. It was a homemade fishing rod, either from some kid or an entrepreneurial (albeit non-artistic) college student. Wrapped around the nail at one end was a bit of fishing wire, which somehow had snapped, loosing the fish hook which then fell into my shoe. Like I said, not something that happens every day.

Yet this odd occurrence struck a chord with me. My personal belief is that everything happens for a reason, that it's all part of God's plan for me and everyone else on this planet. I take incredible comfort in the concept of predestination. But... that's a story for another blog post. Anyways, I was wondering why something this random and weird would happen to me, maybe it was just unimportant, maybe God was having a laugh on my part, I don't know. Yet in the end, it gave me an idea for a blog post and a funny story, so I guess it had some meaning after all.

Here's what popped into my head as a walked slowly back to home sweet Sparrowk, idly caressing this large metal fish hook.

Let's look at this as an analogy. Say there is a man fishing in a pond with this homemade fishing rod. A simple piece of wood (with nails stuck in at either end), fishing wire, and a hook. He cocks it back, then with an expert flick of the wrist sends it skimming over the water to the exact spot where he wants it to sink.

Now let's pretend that fish hook is us, and the fisherman is God. He throws us into this stream, these waters of life. Once we hit, we immediately sink (this line doesn't have a bobber, it's pretty low-tech). That would be the effects of our inherent sin, dragging us deeper into the dimly-lit depths below. As we drift through the murky waters of this life, we get swayed back and forth by the currents running just under the surface. We are influenced by a variety of sources; friends, family, the media, our culture in general. We are tossed around, not knowing where to turn or where to go. Sometimes, we get caught on a log or a some reeds, anything from sex or drugs to simply making bad decisions. We get mired down, caught in this snare. It takes a little tugging and prodding from the fisherman to get us out. Sometimes it's painful, it is almost never easy. Yet gently, surely, He pulls us out of our entanglements and drags us back to shore. Now let's take this one step deeper. If we are the fish hook, then suppose the line is our life and our faith, and the rod in the hands of our fisher God is Jesus Christ. We are connected to Christ through our faith and actions in this life. God sent His son to be used as a tool to guide us and teach us and ultimately to die for us, saving us and keeping us on track in the waters of this life. We are able to connect with God directly through his son. God uses the rod to direct our life (and therefore us) in this world. Many times we get snatched away by the current, but He always has the ability to reel us back in. To continue the analogy, if we are a fish hook, then the rest of the world are the fish. They're worse off than we are in many ways. They don't have the benefit of the fisherman's direction; they simply wander up and down the stream aimlessly. Our job is to catch them. There is a reason that Jesus calls for his disciples to be "fishers of men". Our purpose in this life is to first, glorify our Lord in all we do, and second, bring others to Him. Now, this process is not always pretty. Many times it's hard, even painful. It's not easy to surrender control of your life to someone else. It's not easy to completely open yourself to anyone, even your Creator. I find it slightly ironic that we try to hide things from God, like He doesn't know us better than anyone else in existence. (But I digress). Many people will try to fight God, like a fish on a line. But slowly, surely, He reels them in, a bit at a time. And, sooner or later, through us, the fish is reunited with the fisher. Now, this is where the analogy kind of breaks down... seeing as a real-life fisherman would probably gut and then cook the fish. But you get my point.

I thought that was an interesting analogy, and especially so because the real-life homemade fishing rod that I found had nails stuck into it... just like a cross. Hmm. Maybe everything does happen for a reason.