Heartprints

Maybe You Need to Go Fishing…

It had been a while since I had been to the doctor. I’m the first to admit I don’t like being poked and prodded and placed under the medical microscope. Just being in a doctor’s office drives my blood pressure sky high. But there I was. A sharp pain in my side had brought me there.

It had been a while since I had been to the doctor. I’m the first to admit I don’t like being poked and prodded and placed under the medical microscope. Just being in a doctor’s office drives my blood pressure sky high. But there I was. A sharp pain in my side had brought me there.

Sign in at the front window. Fill out a medical history. (Why can’t we just copy my answers from last time?) Wait in the waiting room. Go to the back room and wait there another half hour. The assistant comes in. Then we wait again hoping someone remembers you’re there. (I think to myself, “It’s misleading to call the waiting room the waiting room. Every room in the doctor’s office is a waiting room.”) The doctor comes in. Next I’m directed to wait in the doctor’s office. (Why do I feel like I’ve been summoned to the principal’s’s office?)

As I sit in the doctor’s office, waiting for her to come, I wonder what she will say to me. Will she sit behind her desk and scold me? That’s been my previous experience with a different doctor. As she enters the room, I’m pleased to see her sit in the chair beside me. The test results are fine. Her main concern is my high blood pressure. What was the reason for it? We talk as if she has all the time in the world. And I relate the stressfulness of the past year.

Working long hours, days, nights and weekends. Moving from one deadline to another without any margin time. The tyranny of the urgent, only everything is urgent. Essentially just being too busy.

Her words to me?

You work at that school (Dallas Seminary), don’t you? Yes. You help people, right? Yes. It’s like when Jesus fed all those people (John 6:1-15). You would have been one passing out the food and gathering the leftovers in baskets, right? Yes. Well, someone had to go and catch the fish. Maybe you need to be the one that is fishing for a while. Maybe you just need to go fishing… 

Maybe she’s right, Lord. Maybe I need to slow down and do something fun like fishing or taking a vacation. Maybe I need to spend a day (or days) where I don’t do anything on my to-do list. Maybe, like Mary, I need to sit at your feet and listen to you (Luke 10:38-42). Lord, help me not to be so distracted and busy. Help me, instead, to rest and spend time with You. And maybe You and I just need to go fishing…

 

(My friend, maybe you, too, just need to go fishing…)

2 Comments

  • Kelly Arabie

    Let’s go!

    Jerry, I can so identify with you (and so can a lot of people I run into!).  I love the picture here–may you find the quiet place away with Him God has just for you.

  • Jerry Lawrence

    A Quiet Place Away

    Thanks so much, Kelly! It always helps to know that others identify with your situation. I'm also reminded of how often in Scripture it says that Jesus went away to a quiet place. Even Jesus needed time away from ministry to be refreshed and reconnect with the Father. It's a reminder that we all need.

    I'm with you…let's go!!

    Jerry