Devotion 3 - Be Still

Psalm 46:10
10 "Be still, and know that I am God;I will be exalted among the nations,I will be exalted in the earth."

A good friend called yesterday wanting to know if I could sneak away from work for a short trip to the Elk. A good friend, one of those guys you can count on to be there –never complaining even if it’s February and you flipped the canoe – twice.
Not wanting to disappoint such a good and loyal friend I took a vacation day today and we headed off to the Elk hoping the river would be fairly empty of people but full of willing fish. On the hour long trip to the river we caught up on each others’ lives. You know, the kind of guy discussions that you have in a car on the way to the river where you’re making sure your friend is OK without actually asking outright. We quickly reassured each other that life was progressing within acceptable limits and we were surviving then the talk turned to our next planned trips to new waters – he to the West and me traveling East. It’s early May with clear skies and gentle spring breezes. Wonder of wonders the river is almost completely empty of people and the fish immediately begin to cooperate. The fish were not huge but stockers mostly that are fun to throw a fly to. I was drifting midges just under the surface and every few casts I would have a take, land the fish, smile, release, and! cast a gain. My friend started upstream without quite the same success and we exchanged information on fly selection and depth. After a bit my friend moved around me to a lower pool and started catching fish with even greater regularity.
Anyway, it’s the kind of gentle day on the river we all need every once in a while. Maybe it’s the kind of day that is the reason we fish. The kind of day where you’re standing in a river and you’re simply, truly, comfortably happy. That’s the kind of day it was. And then Psalm 46:10 hit me as I looked around God’s creation and I knew again this was no mathematical accident, this was creation at its finest.

Devotion 2 – Forgiveness

Proverbs 19:11
"A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense"

The sound was unmistakable, the boat was breaking under my feet. The NEW boat, my friends boat that he was so rightfully proud of and I was breaking it. OK, we weren't sinking - there was no hole - no water where there should be dry boat but it was breaking. I had gone ashore and was getting back in the boat - stepped too long where I shouldn't have and heard the cracking of the finish on the boat. I FELT HORRIBLE.
As you can imagine things got real quiet. My friend the boat owner in the back of the boat quiet because he was swallowing a ton of stuff he really, really wanted to say to me right then. My other friend in the middle of the boat quiet because he really, really wished at that particular moment he was in any other boat on the river. And me, because - well because I broke the boat. It stayed quiet for a long time.
What made things worse was that my friend the boat owner (of that boat I just broke) wasn't having the best of days on the water anyway. Flies caught in trees, fish breaking off in grasses at the bottom of the river, wind knots every other cast and now this. After a while my other friend and I tried to lighten the mood and it felt exactly like two guys trying to lighten up a guy that was having a pretty bad day - in other words we probably should have just kept our mouths shut but we're guys - not known for our wisdom.
Well, God smiled as he does often and the fish started biting. Divine Providence? Maybe - Probably, nonetheless we all started catching fish and the day just got better and better and ended with everyone feeling like it was an OK day on the river. Sure, the boat was still broken and I'll hear about it for a while (as I should). We'll get it fixed and then there will be another scratch, or dent, or hole, or whatever and we'll get through that because that's what friends do - they forgive.
I saw my boat owner friend the next day at church. He smiled, shook my hand like nothing had happened. I had brought a disk of pictures from our trip for him and he seemed excited to get it. It was really, really nice to see him smile....

Rain

Devotion 1 – Rain

Genesis 2:4-6 (New International Version)
4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens- 5 and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth [a] and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth [b] and there was no man to work the ground, 6 but streams [c] came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground-

Genesis 9: 12-16

12And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth."
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Today, for some reason I have rain on my mind. Maybe it’s because I’m standing knee-deep in the Watauga, water dripping off the hood of my rain jacket, “cheater glasses” completely unusable, wondering why I’m trying to catch one more fish when I could be home drinking coffee warm, safe and DRY. This is exactly the type of day when my friends, the non-fishing kind, look at me and just shake their heads. But it’s a day on the river – full of promise for the next big fish caught on the fly I tied after my “perfect” presentation - and, it beats working.
I remember that God made the rain for a purpose. Part of his perfect plan to create this perfect world I inhabit for now. What some people call the natural order of things I call God’s creation. Beginning in Genesis God makes his creation plan very clear – his world needs water for life. Before there was man there were streams – God’s plan – before man knew God – even before man – Gods plan.
In life rain falls. Sometimes showers, sometimes storms, and sometimes floods that cover our lives. But at the end there is always the rainbow – the covenant made by God for us. For Christians that covenant is the promise and life of Jesus and his payment for our eternal life – that’s our rainbow. Always and forever.
So, I’m standing knee deep in the Watauga, water dripping off the hood of my rain jacket, smiling.