I want to continue yesterday’s meditation on fishing for the hungry. A member of Auburn University’s National Championship Bass Fishing Team said:

Everybody’s like, “You go out, sit down and throw a bobber out there.” I’m running 50 to 100 places every tournament. I don’t like to sit and wait for them to feed, I like to fish for fish that are feeding. – Tucker Smith

There’s a promise and a challenge for helping the hungry:

And if you offer your soul to the hungry and satisfy the soul of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your thick darkness will become like midday. And Yahweh will continually guide you, and satisfy your soul in scorched places, and fortify your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. (Isaiah 58.10, 11, LSB)

Offer your soul to the hungry… How many sermons are delivered to the non-hungry? How can we make them hungry? Or how can we find the ones who are already hungry?

There was an interesting series on fishing last week in the comic strip Zits. Dad says, “We’re going fishing, leaving at 4am.” The next morning, the dad is up and ready to go at 4am, and the kid is up…because he hadn’t gone to bed yet! Then the kid says, “Look, Dad, there’s is zero chance of me going fishing with you at 4am.” And Dad replies, “OK. Just help me load this box of fresh donuts into the car.” The next frame, they’re driving down the road with the kid eating the donuts, and Dad thinks, “Fishing is all about using the right bait.” The kid wasn’t hungry to go fishing, but he was hungry for donuts!

These are similar to the lessons I listed in Fly-fishing and Disciple-making. Fishing for the hungry is something I think we need to figure out.

They say, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” But you can put salt in his oats! – Dr. Howard Hendricks

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5.13 – 16, ESV)