Devotion 16 - Getting My "AWE" back

WARNING: NOT YOUR TYPICAL STREAMSIDE DEVOTION

The sign said, "Bald River Gorge" and just for good measure below it, "Wilderness Area". That pretty well sums it up - a typical, beautiful East Tennessee mountain stream surrounded by steep walls covered in mountain laurel. It's a young man's river - or maybe just a younger man's river - meant for commando style fishing where you drop straight down off the trail to get to promising pocket water without worrying how you are going to get back up.



For me it's the river of my youth. One of my college roommates, a kid from West Virgina or Virginia or somewhere that loved fishing the small mountain streams and would dance and laugh every time he caught a four inch Brookie, "found" it for us. The "us" was my other roommate and I making a trio of kids with cheap fly rods, little to no money, rare dates, and a love for the wilderness rather than the classroom. Later I would introduce it to my cousin and lifelong partner in, well, everything. Many Fridays after class in the Spring and Fall we would load up the Gran Torino (yep, me and Clint Eastwood) and head to the mountains driving the last five or so miles seemingly straight up the gravel road - fishtailing all the way - to the "wilderness campground". Then, as now, the rules were simple - camp only in the designated camping area, valid fishing license and trout stamp, single hook only artificial with an actual creel limit of three fish - it's still the same today.



Once we parked the car and the dust settled we would string up our fly rods put on our backpacks and immediately leave that designated campsite. After hiking in a mile or so we would set up camp before darkness settled in down in the gorge. Camp usually consisted of sleeping bags, cast iron skillet, flashlight, canned whatever, pancake mix, bourbon, army surplus mess kits and a plastic tarp if we remembered it. Lightweight gear and dehydrated food were just catching on in the early 70's but were still well beyond our budget. The thing I remember most about these camps was the water - straight from the river you could still drink it, mix it with your bourbon, wash you skillet and mess kits with it and not get some disease, chemical or parasite that they have now that I can't even pronounce. To my knowledge today there is no stream or river in Tennessee that you can drink out of without additional purification.

That was then. Now, some 35 years later, it's still a fairly untouched area full of memories for a "middle-aged" "parts is parts" fly fisherman. Last Friday I was able to make another trip for a few hours to this holy water and dang if I didn't have the whole river to myself - not another soul in sight. Intentionally for this trip I had chosen my bamboo rod actually named the "Bald River" intending to fish dries as much as possible. Leaving the truck at the bridge I headed downstream carrying as little gear as I could get away with. I walked for about 20 minutes passing "Bruton's bend" where my cousin took a huge hit of Bruton's powdered snuff one day and went to his knees in pain and confusion in 1973 and came to a fairly level access point to some promising water I remembered near our old campsite. Using a dry dropper rig I tied the magic BHPT on the bottom and a little yellow Elk Hair/foam Hopper attractor fly on top. First cast and BAM! I missed a little rainbow on the top fly - game on. Fishing a few more pools along the way I kept catching creek chubs on the BHPT and a strike here and there on the top fly. Tired of the creek chubs (go figure) I cut off the bottom fly and went strictly top-water. Two more pools and I finally landed a nice little six inch rainbow who thought he was a whole lot bigger.

Time begin to run out as I needed to be back in Chattanooga for dinner with friends so I worked my way back to the bridge and the truck. Crossing the bridge I looked upstream and the water just looked too good to pass up. It's flat water, some current but it's hard to see and you can create those bathtub riffles as you wade upstream. Surprisingly there are some fairly deep holes here and there as well as some rock structure along river right. Casting as I moved upstream I saw a rise river right and some riffle motion to the left that ebbed and flowed like something was stirring the water. I fished the riffle first thinking it might be a brown feeding on chubs in the late afternoon. Nothing. Then I decided to fish the rise river right.

It's one of those times we all have. You feel that this is IT. Perfect water perfectly still with a rise so you KNOW there is a fish there. Now all you have to do is put the fly in the right spot in the right way with the right drift and not too much fly line showing and hoping against hope that your false casts didn't put the fish down like it says in the magazines. I did it. I really did it - it all came together for that one bright moment in time where the fly fell just where it should barely disturbing the water. One second later it was hit by a freight train of a fish taking the fly with no hesitation, pulling the line taunt, feeling the hook and spitting the fly back out on the water and gone leaving it's wake behind. Big fish. Really big fish for that little river. No I didn't see it and no it wasn't one of the 20 inch fish everyone always says they catch but rarely do but it was a nice fish for that river that felt fairly heavy for the spit second it was on and it left a big enough hole in the water to let me know I missed a nice one.

I laughed - out loud. What else could I do. Everything had been there and I missed the fish. He won, I lost - or - we both won. He had a sore jaw and I had another Bald River story and I got my "awe" back in the process.

Devotion 15 - Wind Knots

Psalm 134 - 1 Praise the LORD, all you servants of the LORD who minister by night in the house of the LORD. 2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the LORD. 3 May the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.”

In ancient Greece in times of trial and tribulations the people would look for a HERO to rise from among them to save them from their perils. These were not gods but men who were gifted with great wisdom or strength. These were men who “Saved the Day”.
In our times, in our lives, as men of faith we sometimes are called upon to be heroes as well – we are asked to walk into darkness, fix the unfixable, have all the answers, show the true path, clean up the messes, solve the unsolvable. And, as men of faith we try – God love us. We advise and pray and think and suggest and hurt for our friends and stand in the muck and want to spread the Word and Save all people and have all the answers because we should know all the answers because we’re saved right?
Last week was a week where I felt as if I was called upon for the impossible from 100 different directions about 1000 different things and I failed at every dang one of them. This hero was vanquished and he didn’t like it. The one saving grace was a fishing trip planned in a good drift boat with good friends on what was to be a banner, weather-wise, March Saturday. The toughest thing I wanted to deal with was wind knots.
I had that day thanks to good friends. No fish for me but plenty of knots and sunshine and laughs and it helped but it didn’t fix me. That came later because as usual I was looking in the wrong place for MY fix.
Sunday morning’s service was on Psalm 134 – a song of assent – three verses: “ 1 Praise the LORD, all you servants of the LORD who minister by night in the house of the LORD. 2 Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the LORD. 3 May the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.”
And then it hit me – thanks to an awesome sermon – we should look to the sanctuary and there lift up praise and then..there..the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth, will bless us and we will be revived. So, I lifted my hands just a little bit, did a little praising and lo and behold..I was blessed.
I REALLY need to do a better job remembering where to turn in ALL things..I really, really do.

Devotion 14: You want me to what?

Matthew 1:19 (New International Version)
19Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

OK, we're just "over" Christmas. At our house the celebration lasted a little longer than usual because the GRANDCHILDREN couldn't make it till last week and well, we had to keep the decorations up and then we had to have another celebration and well..you get the picture..

Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about Joseph this year for some reason. Nothing specific, seems like I saw a Christmas special on Mary and Joesph and it struck a chord. So, I started thinking about the whole family dynamic of the birth of Christ. As I thought through this whole thing I realized that Joseph was a pretty standup guy - kind of like my step-father. My father died when I was nine months old and my mom remarried when I was about five. So, "Dad" is kind of the only Dad I know - and a truly standup guy in his own right.

But as we read, Joseph was not only a standup guy but a righteous man - and that's what struck me. I remembered a time an acquaintance stopped me at work and asked for very specific prayer for something going on in their lives. They ended their request by quoting James 5:16 ("The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective"), and yes, they were referring to me. Have you ever been called righteous? It's the quickest way to humility I know of. While I certainly prayed for this person their words have stuck with me for a long,long time. For the record - after much self analysis and comparing to men I think of as righteous - I can truly say my acquaintance was somewhat mistaken in their assessment.

Now, back to Joesph. Think about what he was asked to believe, and do. Standup guy or not this took backbone. But two things stand out. First he was a righteous man. Secondly, look to verse 20 - an angel of the Lord came to him and told him it was OK. And that's the end of the story. A little scandal, a little disbelief, Joseph makes a plan on how to handle the situation (guys HAVE to make plans - it's a control thing)and then he's told to accept and move on....and he does. No whining, no wailing, Joseph listens to God and raises his family.

I'll leave you with this. If you think being a man is hard go to biblegateway.com and search Righteous Man. Look at what it says - the rewards and the requirements. That ought to keep you busy for a while.