Fishing is one of my favorite hobbies. I love stepping into the beauty of the outdoors and enjoying the nature that God has created. We live in a very busy culture. There is always something happening around us. We are connected to more today than ever before. When you step away from the business and connectedness of the city and find a place away in nature, it allows you to reset your mind and soul.
I am reminded of so many important lessons when I am out fishing. One such lesson came to me on a fishing trip with my family. We were fishing for alligator gar on the South Fork on the Trinity River in Texas. We had a wonderful guide with us to help us catch “the big one.” Our guide held the world record for catching alligator gar on rod and reel. We were excited about the possibility of an epic fight when we hooked one of these prehistoric river monsters.
We had already been on the river for a few hours when I got a bite. The line began to pull from my reel, and we knew there was a good fish on the other end. I gripped the rod tightly and set the hook. This fight was on! The fish wanted to go upstream, away from our boat. He was big and strong. I put the rod on my thigh to give myself better leverage as I pulled against the fish. He would fight to swim one way and I would fight to pull him another direction. My arms were getting tired, and my leg was hurting as I continued to dig the rod deeper and deeper into my thigh. I was not going to lose this fish!
It took a significant amount of time and effort, but I was finally able to reel the large gar to the boat. I was exhausted and the fish was spent. It was the biggest fish I had ever caught, just over 100 lbs. This was a fun moment and an experience I will not soon forget.
From that time on the boat, I was reminded of an important life lesson. We are called to forgive as God has forgiven us. (Colossians 3:13) To forgive another person is to let them off the hook. Forgiving another person does not erase the past. Forgiving one another means that we let go of the notion that the person who offended us, or hurt us, now owes us something. To forgive another is to surrender the claim we have because of their transgression against us.
Forgiving others sets us free. When I was fighting to reel in that large fish, I quickly realized that as much as I had him caught, he also had me. The longer we fought, the more tired and sore I became. When I finally got the fish in the boat, my arms were sore, and my leg had a bruise from where I had held the rod. When we choose to not forgive one another, we are keeping up a fight that bruises us as much as the person we are keeping on the hook.
God has forgiven us and set us free to live a joyful and peaceful life. Let us do the same for the people in our lives and for ourselves.
– Rev. Keith King, Pastor of Worship
