Fishin'

My daddy and I went fishin' again yesterday. No we did not catch anything, but it got me thinking. I am reading Lauren Winner's book Girl Meets God (see her blog to the right), and just before we left to go fishing I read a section that mentions the art of fishing. This is a short quote:

I tell her that Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem, said that people think they are coming to church for all sorts of reasons, but really the only reason they are coming, even if they don't know it yet, is that God has gotten them there. He wrote, "Perhaps some man among you has come because he wants to win the approval of his girl-friend. . . Perhaps a slave has wanted to please his master or someone has wanted to please a friend. I accept this as bait for my hook and let you in. . . Perhaps you didn't know where you were going or recognize the net waiting to catch you. You have swum into the Church's net. Allow yourself to be caught, don't try to escape."

I think it is interesting that we are drawn to God without out our knowing. He has baited the hook and we are like Nemo just swimming along with no clue. He may bait us with a "relevant" church or a groups of friend or just someone who will love us like we are. We don't understand until after we have been caught and thrown into the live well with the others. It is in the live well, it is in the church that we begin to understand that have not been caught in order to be supper. No we have been caught, we have been plucked from the lake, because it is polluted. We ruined it and the Holy God of the universe is taking us out, and when He takes us out he puts us into the a new community. A community of fish that are stained with sin but are no long infected with the disease. You see Cyril goes on to point out "Jesus is fishing for you, not to kill you but to give you life."