We had drove over 30 miles, the last 5 or so on a deeply rutted logging road. Now we were walking. It would be about 2 miles to reach the beaver dam pools of the Rock River. My partner and I had been up here every year at the beginning of fishing season.
As usual the walk was a challenge. Both of us had hip waders on and were carrying our fishing rods. I had just bought a ‘break-down’ Wonder Rod made by Shakespeare and it was easier to carry because it disassembled into four sections. Kerry was not so lucky, he had the standard fly rod and because it only had two sections, he was struggling to make it thru the tag elder brush without getting snagged often. Both of us were also carrying creels that contained our flies and would serve as storage for the number of fish we had faith were going home with us by late this afternoon.
After walking for about a half hour we came upon the river. It was not much of a river here and you could walk across it in two or three steps. The rest of our trip would follow it until we reached the plain where the beaver must have been building their dams for a millennium.
Kerry was leading the way and talking as he went. Most of the time he was a good fishing partner and we spent a lot of our time together in silence as we concentrated on our goal, landing the perfect brown or brook trout. But now he was talking away and not really worrying if I was listening or not, it seemed. For my part I was happy I did not have to look interested, as I would have if we were sitting face to face or next to one another in a bar. But suddenly he said something that actually caught my interest. “John, do you have faith in fish?” I was like what is this guy talking about. I think I mumbled, “Ker, I have faith in few things, but fish are not one of them.”
With this he stopped and I not paying attention almost ran into him. “No, man, no. You don’t get it.” I was thinking that is for sure, this guy has smoked one to many doobies. He continued, “Listen, fish are one of the few things in life you can have faith in.” I think at this point he saw the look on my face and said, “Hear me out! Ok, we come up here every year, right?” I just nodded affirmatively. He continued, “We do that because we have faith in fish. I mean, we know if we come up here the fish are going to be here, and we are going to take home a creel full. John, if I did not believe that would I do all this for nothing?”
I wanted to point out that maybe my faith was in the pool where the fish were so plentiful. But I guess in his mind that was the same thing. So instead I said, “Alright, Ker, I guess I have faith in fish or at least the fish here. But not all fish because some of them can be very fickle and not want to hit my fly….” Kerry wasn’t sure if I was kidding or not, but when I shook my head and laughed, he did too. I pushed him forward, “Let’s go catch some of those faithful fish, the mosquitos are pretty faithful too and they are eating me alive!” Kerry turned and headed for the beaver dams about a half mile ahead. I shook my head in humorous disbelief, “Faithful fish, I think now I have heard everything!”, I muttered.
Faith is a mysterious thing, or I used to think so. I can’t really say I had much faith in anything by the time I reached my mid 20’s. I guess as a kid growing up in the Catholic Church I thought of faith as a structure. I would hear my mom say, “Those friends of yours are not of our faith, I don’t think you should hang around with them.” So, I guess, I thought faith was like a disease, if I hung around with those kids, I might catch their ‘faith’. And according to my mother that would mean eternal damnation.
People have always thrown the word around. Back in the 60’s you would hear things like, “Keep the faith, baby!” It always seemed so hollow or empty in some way. Without knowing it I lost faith because I never found the true meaning of it. Can you believe it, I was in my mid 50’s before I found a definition that I thought made sense? It was found in the book of Hebrews, Chapter 11.
Here is how that chapter begins, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) I heard that when I was listening the Bible through for the first time. Walking and listening to an MP3 player, I had to stop. It struck me like a lightening bolt. That was a definition I had never heard. And a verse later this is written, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” (Hebrews 11:3) “Faith is believing that by God’s word all things were made and made of nothing or nothing we understand. Faith is believing God is who he says he is. That day I saw the possibility of that and as Chapter 11 goes on to describe all those of the Old Testament who believed, most without seeing, faith started to make sense for the first time in my life.
The funniest part of my story is that when we got to the pools above the beaver dams, we caught nothing. I teased Kerry all the way home about the ‘unfaithful’ fish. It became our catch phrase every time we got skunked (didn’t catch fish), we would say, “The fish weren’t very faithful today!” I am blessed today to know we have a God who is always faithful. If you are struggling with the idea of faith, try reading the Book of Hebrews, it changed my life. The 11th chapter is called the ‘Faith Chapter’. My faith now is in a God who loves me so much he would die just for me, that is the evidence I needed to believe. And that is our God. This is not just another fish story!
Blessings John,
3/6/19
