Matthew 4:18-20
18 Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 And He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of people.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.

We happily hummed and sang our new tune while trotting down to the lake from our house. The song had a country twang with some rock n’ roll speed and only one line. The repeated chorus went something like this.

I’m going fishin’ with my daddy
I’m going fishin’ with my dadday

(Daddy seemed to get more drawn out each time we sang it)

My three-year-old son, Knox, has always made me smile but this new song he wrote accompanied by an impromptu walk to the lake had my eyes filling with happy tears. In typical millennial fashion, I attempted to capture the moment in a selfie style video as he walked behind me. Thankfully, I captured part of his smile and song to save as a wonderful memory.

Knox loves fishing almost as much as he loves jamming air guitar and drums. I didn’t grow up fishing much, so this has been a new journey for me. Half confidently, I show him how to tie knots, remove hooks and cast into the lake. He doesn’t even know I’m watching YouTube videos when he goes to sleep so I can learn this stuff myself!

This style of “fake it till you make it” sometimes gives me the feeling that I’m an imposter. Do you ever feel like that in your faith? Everything seems to be going well and then, BOOM! You lose your cool at work or with your spouse. You say something you regret. Worry and anxiety seem to stick with you for days at a time or longer than you would like. Anger consumes you over a small inconvenience. One minute you’re reading scripture and praying but the next you’re screaming at your kids. I think to myself, “Jesus said he’d make me a fisher of men but I’m ruining my witness!”

Jesus knows we can’t do this without him.

Knox fully relies on me every time we fish together. Truthfully, most of my time is spent untangling line, pulling his bobber out of a tree, calming him down when he casts his bait straight into the ground and grabbing him before he almost falls off the dock. Despite all of that, I think fishing with Knox is my favorite thing to do in the whole world; and get this, he doesn’t even have a hook on his line. When he fishes, he isn’t even capable of catching a fish! We don’t have time for a run to the ER every time we fish so I cut all the treble hooks off his bait. (Pro tip – The lead weight hitting me in the forehead is less painful than a real hook)

Let’s recap. I’m a bad fisherman. Knox casts a little lead weight repeatedly with no chance of catching a fish. We both don’t know what we’re doing. We are having a blast and getting closer to each other along the way. I think God is showing me something.

God delights in us when we trust in Him. Knox trusts in me even though I’m learning as I go (thank God for that!) Let’s put trust in our heavenly Father because He absolutely knows what He’s doing. Jesus is ready to untangle our fishing line and grabs us right before we fall off the side of dock. Let’s get out into the world with the intention of doing good for Jesus even if we don’t catch a fish every day. Unknowingly, we might be throwing hookless bait in the water, who cares if we are with Jesus! Allow Jesus to lead us as we stumble through becoming fishers of men and as you get out of bed tomorrow, be sure to declare that today, I’m going fishin’ with my daddy!

Ryan