September 2 – “A second workout”

Wow.  Already September.  And as I write this a hurricane is in the Gulf heading for Florida.  Welcome to coastal living, I guess. 

Speaking of coastal living, I got to do some fishing yesterday.  as we drove to water exercise at a little before 7 a.m. the water looked downright clean.  A few waves were breaking close to shore, as usual, but generally speaking it was fairly smooth.  Do you sense the hope in my descriptions thus far?  After exercise class I went for bait and headed out to my usual spot, out in front of WalMart. 

And literally as I walked into the water, the wave action picked up.  Of course it did.  And it didn’t let up.  In fact, for the entire time I was out there I was pummeled by the crashing waves.  I managed to work my way out beyond the breakers, but that meant the swells were well over my head.  Not a problem.  All I had to do was anticipate and jump.  But when I jumped and landed as the wave passed, I found that I had been carried over several feet.  Oh, did I mention the strong current?  That simple fishing trip turned into a much harder workout than the water exercise had been.

But I caught some fish.  Two really nice reds.  Six big specs.  A few whiting.  Even caught a black drum but I threw him back.  Threw back the catfish, too, of course.  One of those evil catfish nicked my arm as I wrenched him off of my line.  That’s always painful.  And have you ever been bitten by a red fish?  Twice?  Both of them grabbed my fingers with their throat teeth as I held them by the gills trying to remove the hook.  Also painful.  Shredded the skin on my thumb and one finger.  But was it worth it?

Oh, yeah.  One of the reds put up the best fight I have had in a long time (With a fish, I mean.  I do my best to avoid fighting otherwise).  Most reds I have caught usually make one really good run, or maybe two, and then get tired.  This one made four runs and took out drag every time.  Great fun.  And one of the bigger specs made three jumps out of the water on his run.  Now that’s exciting.  Oh, and we baked one of the reds for lunch.  The whole reason behind the trip in the first place.  September is a good month so far.

1 Corinthians 14:1 says, “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.”

Father, thank you for “second workouts” that result in such instant gratification.  That first workout sure takes a lot longer.  Amen.