What Boat are You?

I was blessed to spend the last week in Destin, Florida with my family. Many mornings I'd sit on the back deck with this view:

And though it's hard to see, it was a perfect view of the channel. I could watch the boats all heading out to the ocean ready to fish. Some were huge and flashy, packed with people, others were tiny but speedy, and still others looked in bad need of a paint job. I watched one morning while the smallest, roughest looking boat outran a larger one leaving it to eat its waves. But all shared one thing in common: they were going fishing.

Of course, it made me start thinking. We are an awful lot like those boats. God has made us all unique. Some of us are more polished while others have seen the knocks of life, but each of us is a vessel God can use. Our outward appearance or the way we approach fishing isn't what matters--each of those boats went out there and caught fish in their own way. With their own tools. Old ones full of experience and newer ones with the best technology on the market, but the end result was the same...they caught fish. In different areas, at different depths, and of different kinds, but they caught them.

I know, it seems simplistic, my little boat analogy, and yet we struggle with it, don't we? We fail to see the beauty of this vessel God has given us. We compare. We strive to be like another. We think we're not good enough, the talent he blessed us with is too small, the amount of fish we haul in paltry. But that's just it: we think. But God, our Father? He's rejoicing over us.

Think about it. Ever gone fishing with your child? When they haul in even a minnow we jump up and down in excitement with them. So when did that become not enough for us? Your boat may be small and peeling, your catch only a few tiny minnows...but if you didn't catch them, they'd still be out there swimming. Jesus always rejoiced over the one, so why don't we? Why do we think it isn't enough?

If it's because we sense more out there in need and truly have the heart to reach them, then go! Keep fishing! But if it's because we're upset by our fishing vessel and are living in comparison, then pull back to shore and spend some time with the One who created you. Let Him speak over you, love on you, polish you up and heal any holes, but then get back out there. There's an ocean full of fish waiting to be caught and you have a part in the perfect vessel He gave you.

"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." Mark 1:17