I Fish, Therefore I Am

I fish, therefore I am.

Well, not really. My ultimate identity is not determined by my fishing. But most of you who know me know I love to fly fish. People out of the blue will ask me how the fishing is. Honestly, I really don’t fish as much as some of you think, but I do fish more than most.

But in my fishing, I often have opportunities to engage in spiritual conversations.

It often goes like this.

Maybe I’m fishing a stream near someone else and enjoying success. These people sidle down to me and ask what flies I’m using. I show them my flies. We start a conversation. And it goes from there. Where it goes depends on the Holy Spirit.

For example, my Alaska friend, Charlie, was tight lipped about his private life. A child of the ‘60s, he channeled Joan Baez and Bob Dylan through his iPhone on the river. He deadpanned off-color jokes that even made me, the preacher, suppress a smile. He was handy and helpful in camp, once fixing my leaky waders and a balky fly reel.

Slowly I gained Charlie’s confidence. He invited me to stay at his home in Anchorage. When his first wife died of cancer, he invited me to dinner with his new lady friend. I mustered courage to ask more probing spiritual questions. I still don’t know where Charlie stands with Jesus. But I do know that I would not have had the opportunities I had with Charlie if I had not gotten to know him on the river.

So it’s my contention in this blog post that it’s in the everyday “chance” encounters with people that we have best opportunities to talk about Jesus. On our kid’s soccer field. While shopping at Walmart. Getting gas at Fred Meyer. Chit chatting with neighbors at the mailbox. And yes, even on a trout stream.

We marvel at the apostle Paul’s strategic approach to evangelism. He chose major cities in the Mediterranean world, went first to the synagogue of his fellow Jews, and then to the non-Jews often planting a church.

Acts 17 in Athens provides just such an example. We remember his memorable speech before Athens’ ruling body in Acts 17:22-31. But in v.17 we read, “So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there” (NIV, emphasis mine). Yes, Paul was intentional in going to the marketplace. Yes, it was a strategic place. But like Paul, we can talk to those who happened to be there, the people God puts in our lives daily.

No, you don’t have to take up fly fishing to be an evangelist for Jesus. Just be there, attentive to the Spirit.