The outdoors is a pretty big part of my life.
I got it from my dad.
Ever since I was little, my dad was teaching me how to shoot a gun, shoot a bow, or tie a hook on a line.
I absolutely love hunting and fishing with my dad.
We aren’t always successful, but we have so much fun just being together in nature.
One of my favorite things I get to do with my dad is go fishing in
Canada.
Our trip always starts off with a day driving up to
Canada.
From there, we fly in on a little float plane into the middle of nowhere.
We are usually miles from anyone.
So for a week, there is nothing but silence.
No TV, no music, no cars, no cell phones, no alarms, no sound at all, except for the birds chirping, the waves crashing, and Jim snoring in the next room.
Up where we are, it is light from about 4 in the morning until 11 at night, so we get to fish a lot.
We fish pretty much all day, everyday.
The only time we don’t fish is when we sleep and when we eat, which I need to add that we eat like kings, seriously.
My dad could seriously open a restaurant with some of the meals he cooks.
(This really isn’t that important to the story, but I want you to understand that the food we eat isn’t amazing because I think my dad is a good cook, it would really rock your world.)
But if you took away the fishing and the great food, I would still love it.
I would love it because I get to spend time with my dad and some good friends, and I get to enjoy some of God’s amazing creation.
I can’t put into words the beauty that is up in
Canada, and a picture doesn’t nearly do it justice.
So many times I just stare in awe at how beautiful it is up there.
So why all the
Canada talk you ask…well I just got back from our trip this year.
This year rocked my world again.
It was a blast and the fishing was awesome (just a bonus).
This year the six of us caught 1,132 fish.
It was our second best year ever.
Not only did we catch a lot of fish, but we also caught a lot of big fish.
We have this thing called the 40″ club.
If you catch a 40+” fish you get to be in the club.
Once you are in, you are in.
If you aren’t in, you get taunted, a lot.
We caught 5 fish over 40″ this year, which is a ton for us.
We have only had 7 total in all our previous years.
40″ Pike
42.5″ Pike
Another monster!
One of the things we have done in recent years is keep track of the fish we catch with our homemade fish counters and we place a small wager on who will catch the most and biggest fish each day and also who will catch the biggest fish during the week.
This seems to add a little twist to the trip, I am not sure if it is a good or bad twist though.
For those of you that don’t know me well, I am super competitive.
I hate to lose with a passion.
In fact, I refuse to lose.
When I compete, it is like a life or death situation.
I take things pretty seriously.
It doesn’t matter if I am playing cards, skip-bo, basketball, video games, tic-tac-toe, or catching fish.
It doesn’t even matter if you are 5 or 85, I want to win and I want to win big.
And if I lose, I can be a little wound up for a while until I cool off.
So this fishing competition has become a fairly large part of our trip.
We have all sorts of rules that we have carefully thought out to make sure that everyone is playing fairly.
Major trash talking seems to come along with this competition.
But it is unavoidable i think because everyone going thinks they are going to catch the most and biggest fish, and so we let each other know….and when they know…we let them know again…we just wouldn’t want someone to forget, right?
Once we get up there it is on.
We basically go fish all day and when we come back we write down the fish counts.
If I am in the lead, I feel pretty good about myself.
You know, because everyone is curious where I was fishing and what lures I was using.
I am the center of attention.
But if I am down, I say, “Good job today!” but find myself really thinking, “Why didn’t I catch more fish than them.” Or “I hope they don’t catch as many fish tomorrow.”
Or “I am going to destroy them tomorrow.”
Isn’t that just ugly.
This is called envy.
You know, envy…that negative feeling you get when you want someone else’s possessions, successes, etc…
It is a very ugly thing.
It is something that has taken many of my experiences and made them not as pleasent because I wanted someone else’s success.
Even if it is something as small as wanting others to catch less fish and me to catch more so I can win in a fishing contest…it is still envy.
In Matthew 22:37-39, Jesus tells us to
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
The second most important thing Jesus tells us to do is love our neighbor.
I am guessing (and I could be wrong) neighbor in this situation means more than the guy across the street.
It means everyone, my actual neighbor, other Americans, people all over the world…friends and enemies alike.
It even means that I am supposed to love a guy sitting in the same fishing boat as me.
So what is love…what does that mean to love someone…The bible defines love in 1 Corinthians 13.
In verse 4, it says
Love is patient, love is kind,
it does not envy….
Hmmm…love does not envy…and I am supposed to love everyone…it is hard to love someone and envy them at the same time…Man, I stink at this love stuff.
Envy was taking over my trip.
I was catching double the fish that other people were catching and I had easily caught the most big fish, but that wasn’t enough for me…I wanted more.
I wanted to be the best and it was driving me nuts that I wasn’t.
It is actually sad to think about.
I was being so selfish.
I was thinking one day while fishing with my dad…I am a member of the elite 40″ club 4 times over.
My dad in all of his years of fishing hasn’t caught one and is still waiting on that big one.
I am usually in the top 3 for most fish on our trips, and my dad is usually not.
And I am the one sitting there selfishly wanting more…not even thankful for what I had been given, just gimme, gimme, gimme.
I don’t get how I was the one that was pissed off, and my dad was so content.
Envy…
Reading this…I guessing you think I am a selfish jerk.
Well…you have good reason.
That is what envy does to you.
It can consume you and take over your life.
When you are envious of someone, you can’t genuinely be happy for them.
When you are envious, you can’t love.
You guys…Jesus said to love god and love others.
He must have thought it was important.
In fact, I think he believed it was the most important thing we need to learn how to do.
I say learn how to do it because it is so much deeper that we typically think of when we say “I love hot dogs” or “I love sunsets.”
We throw around the word “love” like it is going out of style.
Love in our eyes is so surface level…but it is so much deeper than we can ever imagine… We need to start/keep learning how to love better.
I pray God will teach me how to love better on this upcoming trip.
In 1 Corinthians 13:8 it says
Love never fails.
That means it never ends, it never dies, therefore love equals life…eternal life.
Sin on the other hand is something that keeps us from God.
God is love.
Sin keeps us from love, it keeps us from life.
That must mean that sin is death.
Growing up, when I would compete it was like a life or death situation.
I now realize that I wasn’t too far off.
It is life or death; I just need to look at it from a different angle.
It doesn’t affect my physical life so much, but it affects my spiritual life.
Depending on how I approach a competition, it can bring love or sin…life or death.
Hey God…I just want to thank you for all of the blessings you give me, we both know I don’t deserve them.
I just want to ask you tonight to start breathing life back into me.
My competitive nature has brought death into parts of my spiritual life.
I know you have the ability to bring dead things back to life.
Teach me how to love more and envy less.
Help me love for you.
Help me live for you.
