Fishing

Occasionally I make some very important realizations about my life.  Sometimes someone says something to me that sets off some line of thought that seems completely random at the time, but turns into something significant to me. 

There are other times when it seems like a boulder just gets dropped on me out of a clear blue sky, and I have no choice but to drop whatever I’m doing and deal with it.  Regardless of how they come to me they are usually things that in retrospect are pretty obvious.  They were there all along but I simply never noticed them.  This was one of those things.

I realized one day that even the mere presence of Christ will change anything.

 

I think the apostle Peter was familiar with what I am talking about.

In John chapter 21 Peter is dealing with the aftermath of the Crucifixion.  He has no hope.  The one he gave everything to is dead.  With the death of his future he returns to his past. 

“I am going out to fish.”

He trudges down the beach and begins to run the strands of the nets he hasn’t touched for three years listlessly through his fingers.  Before Christ (B.C.) this was what he always did.  Up until he’d heard those two fateful words “Follow me.” these nets had been the source of his well being, his sustenance, his pride, his provision for his family and his heritage.  He knew little else.

In the intervening years he saw the dead raised to life, water turned to wine, and lepers healed.  One miracle after another had been performed in his presence.  The Pharisees and Sadducees, the powers of his society, had been repeatedly challenged and shown to be the greatest of hypocrites.  The foundations of his life have been completely changed.  But even with all these things the greatest change is what has happened within. 

Peter made the sacrifice of believing in someone other than himself. 

In moving the focus of his belief he had done things at the request of He in whom he believed, and he did it regardless of his own agreement.  In so many ways his motivation has been to satisfy his own dreams, but now he comes to understand the root of his problem.  Belief in someone other than yourself is only half of the process.  The other half demands blind dependence.  Peter believed in someone else, but he believed in Him because he thought the other would accomplish Peter’s own desires.  So, belief is one thing, but devotion requires taking on the beliefs and desires of the object of your belief as your own.  Peter, as is often the case in my own life, had not done this.

Now, without Christ, he seems to have lost it all.  Having believed in someone else, yet still applying his own conditions for believing, making Jesus merely a vehicle to reach his own goals, he has not only lost everything, but he has failed himself as well as Jesus.

Imagine climbing in the boat and setting the oars, using muscles gone stiff after years of inactivity and thinking all I can do is fish. 

Without purpose, without Jesus, he simply went back to what he knew.  The problem was that now, having known the ultimate reason for existence, this basic fundamental task could no longer provide any meaning to what was left of his life.

Into this situation Jesus becomes Present to him.

He becomes the Truth.

“Throw your nets on the other side of the boat.”

Only a slight change from what he’d been doing just moments before.  At this point he hadn’t yet realized that it was Jesus who was speaking to him, but he did it anyway.  What do you suppose he thought at that moment?  The local fishing industry hadn’t changed in the time he had been away from it.  He knew what he was doing, but there on the shore is some side-line fisherman who tells him to throw the net on the other side of the boat?  He knows there aren’t going to be any more fish on one side than the other.  Still, he does it.  His pain is such that he needs something to fill the time.  He needs something to fill the hole left by the absence of his Rabbi. 

What did he have to lose?  He was just fishing after all.  When the nets began to fill and as one fish upon another threw themselves into the net he realized something had changed.  It was the change that caused him to realize that the voice he’d heard just a moment ago was the same one he’d heard agonizing in prayer in the garden at Gethsemane.

It was then that he realized just how much the presence of Christ changes the meaning of everything we do. 

He was only doing what he had always done, but it would never be the same for him again.

As a result of Christ’s birth, the properties of giving birth changed.  When a baby entered into the world from the womb it was something that had happened countless times before.  Christ was born as every child had been born, and yet His birth was the one that negated the cause of the mother’s pain.  His birth gave meaning to it.  The betrayal of trust that occurred in Eden was now surmountable as a result of His birth in this world.

Even the act of crucifixion was changed.

The Romans had been crucifying criminals for quite some time before Christ walked the Via Dolorosa, and they continued for a long time afterwards.  But with Christ involved it was more than merely a form of painful execution.

Christ gave it purpose.

His impact and influence was so complete when it happened to Him that even to unbelievers it was forever after known as The Crucifixion.  It is no longer spoken of even in our day without summoning to our thoughts the name of Jesus Christ.  Pilate would never have given a second thought to nailing another set of hands to that beam, and in fact would have willingly given the mob its desire if they had asked for Barabbas to be killed. 

Even Pilate knew somehow that Christ changes everything. 

Even he knew that crucifying Christ would have unimaginable ramifications.

Christ was not the first person to be resurrected either.  He himself raised several people from the dead, but as extraordinary as any resurrection should be considered, no one ever thinks of them when we say The Resurrection. 

No one else was sacrificed first.

Two travelers on the road to Emmaus were just traveling together until Jesus joined them.  When He spoke they knew He was someone who knew what He was talking about.  That simple journey completely altered the course of their lives, not because of the journey, but because of the One on the road beside them.

Sad to say that knowing it is not the same as living it, but I think Peter, when he made it to shore, had finally figured out the difference between what he had been doing for the previous three years and what he was doing now, dripping wet on the shore in front of the living Christ.  I think he stood before Christ re-examining every thought or action he had taken during the last three years knowing that all of his previous ideas were utterly wrong.

It is one thing to nod your head and smile when someone says, “I will rise again on the third day after my death.”  It is a completely different matter when you meet Him after He has indeed done what He said He would do. 

The thought, “You mean you were serious?!” must have crossed his mind at some point.  Peter suddenly had to believe everything he had only paid lip service to previously.  All of the things that he had believed for his own benefit now had a completely different meaning that was no longer based on his own needs and desires.  Overthrown oppressors were no longer an issue when the living Christ was sitting in front of him frying fish on the seashore!  Come to think of it I’ll bet He even fried fish better!  I wonder if he understood then that after three years with Jesus Christ, without Him Peter was not, after all, a better fisherman than before.  Without Jesus he was merely the same, but now he understood what he longed for. 

Now he knew what he was missing.

I want to know how Peter remembered that day.

What did the rest of the world look like to him after he realized that all that Christ said was true?  Could the truth of anything Christ said be doubted if He could overcome the worst enemy of humanity? 

Nope.

Suddenly, he needs to worship Him; to give Him something.

But what do you give to the One who has everything? 

Everything. 

Everything you are, everything you will be. 

Everything you have, and everything you ever had. 

Every desire, and every dislike. 

Every relationship, and every preconceived notion.

Everything good, and everything bad. 

All of it.

Everything. 

Because it’s all changed, and He’s the one who did it.

It doesn’t matter whether you want the change or not, because the creation itself has been fundamentally changed by awaiting His return.  The Expectation with which my very soul trembles changes how I look at Everything. 

And at what cost?

A virgin birth, a crucifixion, a death, a stone rolled away, a resurrection.

Replace the “A” in the previous sentence with “The” and you know exactly who is being spoken of without ever saying His name, but then we say it anyway, because the name of Jesus Christ sounds so much better than any other words that ever passed our lips before. 

And the fact that He lives changes….

Everything!

©Dan Bode 2007

Forsaken

 

“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

When Christ was on that cross, God turned His face away, because He could not bear to see the burden of our sins that Jesus had taken upon Himself.

It is impossible for me to know what it would feel like to have my father turn away from me.  That is one of the reasons He came in the first place.  He saved me from having to learn what it was like. 

My own father was not perfect. I would have to say he forsook many things in life, including himself.  I suppose I could say he forsook me when he killed himself, but I don’t think that was his intent.  He just didn’t think he had the resources to seek the better life God was waiting to give him.

Later, as time separated me from that event, I learned more of what God intended for me.  I learned what life with Him is like.  I learned that I have a different Father.  In the relationship I have with Him, the word “forsaken” will never enter our vocabulary, because that is one of the things that Christ already resolved for me. 

I am an entirely different person because of Him.  I continue to grow and change the closer I get to Him.  It is not always an easy process.  I guess, if I’m honest about it, it is never an easy process.  I do it because He asks, because He paid the price to help me understand that I am valuable.

As I came to realize that I am indeed, not, forsaken, I finally understood that no one else is either.  When He accepted that burden for me, He did it for everyone else.  Not just for the people I like, but for everyone.

I don’t think there is anyone I would consider to be my enemy, but He told me to love my enemies anyway.  Because He does.

The definition of “enemy” seems to be a moving target these days, and usually seems to mean “anyone who disagrees with me that I have never met”.  Regardless of your definition, He loves them too, which is why He asks me to do the same.  We are all siblings in the end.  He wants us to learn to love Him together so that He doesn’t have to keep protecting us from each other.  He loves us all equally and completely so we can put aside the sibling rivalry.

There are things in this world that anger me.  They seek to shift my focus away from Him.  There are times when I cannot see Him, and I fear that He has indeed, forsaken me. 

Turned away. 

Abandoned me.

I am wrong.

He has always been there. 

Waiting with open arms and nail scarred hands.

It was I who looked away.

I tried to pull the nails out that held Him pinned against the sky, but they were part of me, and I had no power to do it. 

It was not until He walked into the crucible that burned away the dross of me, that He could Rise.

But Rise He did.

And He brought me with Him.

Happy Easter.

©Dan Bode 2025

 

 

Kings

There are hummingbirds that like to come in our yard.  It is an amazing thing to watch their flight.

Many times, when I am out there, I don’t actually see them at first.  I see instead the subtle movement of the leaves caused by the wind created by their wings.  Then I look to find their physical presence.  It is a subtle, quiet entrance.  All of sudden just – there.

This led me to make some comparisons and come to some conclusions.

I have given a lot of thought recently to the idea of leadership in the world today.  Whether we call them presidents, or kings or merely pretenders to the throne, we can know them by their methods and demands.

I will tell you now who my King is, and why I follow Him.

My King chose to be a servant, and asked me to do the same.

He shed blood, felt pain, and gave His life so that I would not have to, so that I could live.

I can only look back on history to know what and how this happened, but there were others who were present who still feel the effects of His life to this day.  Like the hummingbird wind He is suddenly – there.

When Christ was on the cross Satan was there.  He heard every cry of pain as the whip fell. He accounted for every drop of blood that stained the ground (and probably drew away from it). He watched His chest rise and fall with each agonizing breath, joyfully anticipating that last one (“there it goes, finally!”).

He danced with glee for three days when Christ gave His life (and “gave” is the right word. He did it willingly.).

As it turned out, three days was not as much of a celebration as he thought, when you think of all the days in eternity.

As he danced, he felt a breeze suddenly – there.

He heard a sound he thought was finally silenced.

A heartbeat, suddenly – there.

Imagine his dismay, and rage, as he turns to find the tomb that was supposed to be a grave, suddenly become – a Throne.

He is not so powerful as he thought.

He is so weak, in fact, that he was toppled by the wind from a hummingbird’s wings.

Then people started to listen to this Hummingbird King of mine, and so Satan changed tactics.  Since he could not kill the King, he turned to distraction.

He refused to admit his loss (like any narcissist) and began to wave shiny things in our faces.  Some left the path to follow the sad reflection of power that he has peddled since the Fall.

“Look at the shiny orange bauble I made just for you!  Worship it!  Prophecy in its name (remember Balaam)!  It will promise you anything you ask for!”

He conveniently fails to mention that it will starve you to death as you get nothing in return.

Your king will not bleed and die for you.  As a matter of fact, your king demands you bleed for him, so he does not have to get his hands dirty.  In the end, your king will bend the knee to mine.  Whether willingly or not, his face will touch the ground.  Your king does not know the meaning of sacrifice, selflessness, love, joy or peace. 

My King bled for me, in order that I might know the meaning of all those things, and be purified.

When you come to me to make demands in the name of your king, you will only see my back, because I am focused on my one True King who made every sacrifice that could be made for me.

I will defy you.

I will defy this little man who demands my attention.

If you do see my face, it will be with my blade bared.

If you see blood, it will be mine, from where you stabbed me with the sword I gave you, in order to bleed His grace upon you.  This is the meaning and purpose of “sacrifice” – to save someone other than yourself.

Because Christmas and Easter are not meant to be lived out on separate days once a year.  We who follow Christ are meant to live them both, every day of our lives.

The bottom line is this:

His life is the only one whose sacrifice is worth anything.  When I die, I will not save anyone or anything.  My life is only given any worth by His.

And My King tells me I am worth Everything!

Happy Easter.

©Dan Bode 2025

Sacrifice and Consequence

 There’s a line at the end of the Christmas movie “Spirited” that goes something like:

“What is sacrifice without consequence?”

This is an incredibly important question, and not one I would have expected in a comedy.

I have always understood that we, as humans, learn from our suffering, and in that sense, I have learned a great deal.  There are others who have learned far more than I.

We go through life with the understanding that our pain, grief, loss, and wounds will make us stronger.  And, hopefully, better.

There have been many times in the midst of my own loss, where I would plead with God to “Please teach someone else” (Take this cup from me).  Not even thinking about the fact that I was asking to let someone else suffer so I wouldn’t have to, and then realizing in that moment, that this is exactly what God did.  

Before Christ was born, He was already on the road to sacrifice. He came to us because God made a Promise.

Promise always requires Sacrifice, and Sacrifice always has Consequence.

The Consequence fulfills the Promise.

His Sacrifice had to happen His way and in His time in order for it to be effective.

When the Wise Men came in search of Jesus, Herod asked them to tell him when they found this new King.  Herod would have gladly sacrificed Him for his own gain, to no one else’s benefit.  Indeed, he tried by killing many other children in the hope of containing the threat to his power.

Humans will be humans after all.

But humans cannot fulfill God’s Promise, nor can we shoulder the Consequence.

I have to make a conscious effort to see Jesus as just a baby.  To imagine Him with messy diapers, saying His first words, or taking His first steps.  It is difficult to get out of the retrospective viewpoint of His entire life, and see Him only in that moment, as His earthly family did, with no knowledge of what the future held.

To behold Him with Joy.

And yet the Joy of His birth was met with hate, and still is in many ways to this.  There are many who claim to follow Him, yet in the same breath say He is not enough.

Who are you little man to question the thoughts of God?

How does hate have greater influence on you when you claim to serve the Prince of Peace?

The angels appeared to the shepherds with “good news of great joy”, yet we wallow in our suffering instead of seeing each other with joyful eyes.

That’s how we got to where we are today.

He made the sacrifice so the consequence would allow us to revel in the Joy of the life He gave us.

There is suffering in the world, in my life and yours, but there is also the opportunity for Joy.  I learn from both suffering and Joy, yet I remember the lessons of my pain more than those of my Joy.  In many ways I suppose I have at times even thought of suffering as an honor, but the point of His suffering and Sacrifice was to give me the chance to see the Joy as the Consequence rather than simply a life of pain.

Christmas is upon us, and we will celebrate that day with Joy, but don’t let it end there.

Please continue to do so on every day after.

And so, as I consider this Child, I will try to live the lessons learned from the Joy He was born to give me.

Merry Christmas.

©Dan Bode 2024

Reminders

 

Reminders

 

Remind me please, why we so easily drift toward darkness

Remind me please, why we so readily love evil

Remind me please, how to love past hatred

Remind me please, what to do after the other cheek has been turned and struck

Remind me please, why there is a need for forgiveness

Remind me please, why your name is Redeemer

Remind me please,

Remind me

All Dogs Eat Poop

 An unusual event occurred in our house today.

Our dog threw up.

How is that unusual you ask? Don’t all dogs throw up once in a while? 

As a matter of fact, yes, all dogs throw up once in a while.  The fact that she threw up is, for her, somewhat unusual, but that isn’t really the unique aspect of the situation.  It’s more what she puked.

It was poop.

The stuff that’s supposed to come out of the "pooper" end of the dog rather than the "eater" end.  Which would indicate that the poop went in to the eater end after it came out of the pooper end.  This is disgusting.

Now let me be clear: I love dogs.  I think they are one of God’s greatest creations, and great companions to humans as a whole.  I’ve had a dog for most of my life, and they have all been good to have around.  But, being animals, they have some habits that my human sensibilities find…. Unfathomable.

Like the sniffing of butts and crotches.

Or dragging their butts across the carpet.  (“Hey stop that!  That’s disgusting!” “No, it’s not.  I don’t have opposable thumbs so I can’t use toilet paper.” “Point taken.”)

Or rolling around in really stinky stuff, and then running up to rub all over you to share it.  (“This smells SO much better than that stuff you put on, doesn’t it?!”)

Anyway, you get my point.  There are some of you who will insist that your dog would NEVER eat poop.  You are clearly lying to yourself.

There may be some nutritional aspects to this that I am not aware of.  Or it’s possible it’s just a flavor issue.  She seems to do it more after we’ve given her some tasty fish or chicken scraps in her bowl.  Maybe it tastes better after it’s had time to go through the “fermentation” process.  I heard an interview once with a fighter pilot who was talking to a newscaster he was taking up on a demonstration flight.

Newscaster: “Are there any foods I should eat or avoid before the flight?”

Pilot: “If you have to eat anything I recommend bananas.”

Newscaster: “Why bananas?  Are they good for motion sickness or something?”

Pilot (smiling): “No.  They taste the same going down as they do coming up.”

So, it ain’t bananas, but maybe it’s the same for poop.  I don’t know and don’t care to.

There are some of you who own cats and dogs in the same household.  There was a day when you wondered why your cat wasn’t using the litterbox as much as she used to.  There just weren’t as many cat turds in the box as you expected.  You looked around the house desperately trying to find the new spot she must be using to no avail.  You concluded the cat must be constipated.  You started looking at products to “get things moving again” to relieve the cat’s supposed suffering.

Then one day the dog looked at you and said, “Hey, just so you know, the cat’s ok.”  You accepted this as a true statement because the dog had kitty litter on her nose as proof.  The cat was as relieved as you to be spared from the approaching enema.

So, when the dog pukes poop right in front of you, it’s really better for you to just accept the clear evidence and admit that he did it, than to keep insisting he would never do anything so offensive. 

Dogs will be dogs after all.

©Dan Bode 2023