Are you fishing on the right side of the boat???

It's funny to me that when I started reading a few chapters of the Bible every evening before bed, I suddenly began to have all kinds of new ideas about blogging subjects.

Last night, as is my new daily routine, I read one Proverb (chapter 2). I read the Proverb for the next calendar day, because in Judaism, 6pm in the evening is the beginning of the new day...thus, on the evening of the 1st day of the month, I read chapter 2, and so on...

I have always liked Proverbs 2, and have summarized, in my abbreviated words, the key encouragement from this chapter:

The Lord gives wisdom

He is a shield to the blameless

He holds victory in store for the upright

He guards the course of the just, and protects the way of those who are faithful.

If you seek him, wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to you soul.

My favorite phrase in these verses is "pleasant to your soul...", which has such a comforting sound to it.

Oftentimes, I find the most meaningful lesson in my reading comes from the passage I haven't planned to read, and such was the case again last night. As I flipped the pages to read further in the book of James, my eyes fell on The Gospel of John, chapter 21...and I was drawn to it.

In John 21, John tells a story about Peter and the apostles going out to fish. I'm not much of a fisherwoman, but I know that fisher-people like to go out early in the morning, and such was the case with Peter and his buddies. They were out fishing before the sun came up, or "dark-thirty" as I would refer to it. After fishing all night, they caught nothing. Early in the morning, when it was beginning to be light, but still too dark to see very well, Jesus called out to them from the shore, and asked if they had caught any fish.

The guys in the boat did not know the fellow on the shore was Jesus, but they answered him, and told him, "No," they had not caught any fish. He told them "Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." When they followed his suggestion, the net was filled with fish, so much so, they could barely get it back into their boat.

The story goes on about what happens next, but this exchange was the point of insight for me...

When you think about "the right side" in the context of the story, it obviously refers to the "right" side, as opposed to the "left" side of the boat...but for me, it suddenly seemed clear that Peter and his buddies were looking for fish on the wrong side of the boat...and I wondered to myself, how often in life am I fishing on the wrong side of the boat?

If I was a country & western songwriter, I might say it a different way, as in looking for love in all the wrong places.

I think it's a good idea to ask ourselves the question -- whether the object of the question is our spiritual life, our financial life, our health...or whatever area doesn't seem to be working well...

Are you fishing on the right side of the boat? Because if you're on the wrong side of the boat, there are no fish over there...and maybe turning things around is as simple as moving your net to the right side of the boat.