March 14 – “Bait or Bate?”

Well, here’s the fishing report from the excursion yesterday.  I know you have all been waiting with baited breath to hear the results.  By the way, what exactly does “baited breath” mean, anyway?  That you have eaten shrimp recently? 

OK.  I couldn’t stand it.  I looked up the etymology of the phrase and found that I was spelling it wrong.  It should have been “bated breath.”  Now that makes all the difference in the world, I’m sure.  Seems the phrase has been around long enough for Shakespeare to use it in Merchant of Venice (never one of my favorites, by the way).  Problem is, I’m not the only one who spelled it wrong.  It’s “baited breath” in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and sadly to say, that esteemed novel has surely made its way into the hearts of quite a few more people than Shakespeare has.  So it’s back to the “bated’s” again.  Being an avid crossword puzzler (well, at least I work part of one every night to help me get sleepy enough to fall into dreamland), I actually know what the word “abate” means – “to lessen or diminish one’s enthusiasm.”  Again, it is quite a disappointment to realize that “bate” is simply a shortened form of “abate.”  Thank you very much, poets of the world, those scoundrels who take such liberties with language in their efforts to make things rhyme.  And so it stands.  “Waiting with bated breath” means you are so excited that it is hard to breath.  It’s that moment when you are on the edge of your seat just before they announce who was voted off the island, or who will go home on Biggest Loser, or who the Bachelor picked to give a rose to. 

Now that’s settled.  Jimmy and I did have a pretty good day fishing.  He was really schooling me, in fact for most of the morning.  He caught a really good sized speckled trout, my all-time favorite.  He followed that up with a sand trout and a keeper red fish.  He threw a speck back because it was too small.  I managed to pull in black drum before I finally hit the jackpot with a good keeper red of my own.  Only had to throw back one hardhead catfish.  We were preparing to go home, reeling in for the last time when a flounder leapt from his muddy hiding spot in a failed attempt to hook himself on my line.  Of course I couldn’t pass up that opportunity.  My fishing mentors always told me that a flounder who shakes off a line will inevitably drop straight back down into the mud just below where you lost him.  So I quickly put some fresh bate - er, bait – on my line and started playing around where I saw him drop off.  Sure enough, he grabbed it, and we had some very nice flounder fillets just aching to be eaten. 

I dropped Jimmy off at his house, and his little brothers and sister came out to see the harvest.  So glad there was something to show them.  Jimmy had his Mom take his picture with the big speck, and they all went inside to enjoy their lunch of fresh fish.  Happy family.  Great day.  And I guess that technically counts as ministry, doesn’t it?  I’ll take that opportunity any day.

John 21:5-8 says, He called out to them, "Friends, haven't you any fish?"

"No," they answered.
6 He said, "Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.
7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, "It is the Lord," he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water.

Father, help me recognize the right side of the boat when you show it to me.  Amen.