On Fishing...

So, people who have gone fishing with me know my opinion on fishing -
"Fishing would be great if it weren't for the fish"

    I love fishing as long as I don't have to catch fish. When I am fishing I can sit for hours and nobody bothers me. When another fisherman does stop by it only takes one look at my empty stringer to get him moving again. No one wants to talk to the guy who can't catch fish.

    I get to enjoy nature's most wonderful scenes when fishing. Running up and down a river in a boat with a couple friends is wonderfully relaxing.

    I get to enjoy friendship in a completely different way when when fishing. These are times when it is OK to sit quietly with others around.

    The only thing that breaks the silence and calm of this wonderful experience is the fish. A fish on the hook invites excitement and interest and distraction and noise.

   So, maybe I am missing the point of fishing, and maybe those fishermen who work so hard to trick a fish onto their hook are missing the point too.

Not from around here are ya?

  So, my wife and I were flying back from New York City after celebrating our 25th anniversary when I discovered a curious unwritten rule : you cannot call yourself a "New Yorker" unless you have lived there for 30 years, and you cannot say you are "from Brooklyn" unless you have lived there 32 years. These are a light compared to the requirement to say you are from Newport, RI, which is three generations, which makes me a little sad because I had hoped by two 6 month stays in Newport would count, evidently not.
  In Eastern Arkansas they refer to a non-native as someone who is "from off".  For example, if you ask for directions to Blytheville, Arkansas and pronounce phonetically instead of "Blivl Arkensaw" then they know instantly you are from "off" and will give you the directions which will include a stop in Oil Pump and a left turn where the big Oak tree used to be.
  All these labels and requirements and unknown rules make me wonder about our own church. What are the unwritten rules that exist within our Body of Believers? How long does someone have to attend in order to be considered a "native"? Do we give knowing looks to others when someone mispronounces "Shibboleth" (did I just do that very thing by making an Biblical reference which only those who know the story will understand and get the inside joke?) Do we treat new people as though they are from "off"? Have we created our own classes within the church?
  I cant speak for my church since we just moved and are pretty new, but I know I have, personally. And it is wrong. And in reality there is only one class of people within the Body of Believers - sinners, enemies of God, who have been redeemed and rescued and adopted into a family that goes beyond DNA, and we are all somewhere on the road to sanctification, struggling one step at a time, looking for the day when we will finally see our Redeemer face to face.