Catching Trophies or Catching Bait

By Cynthia Ruchti –

A lone boater caught my eye when my husband and I were in Florida months ago. We stood on a long pier from which tourists can fish for the curious, sun-speckled varieties the Gulf of Mexico offers. For a fee, tourists can rent a pole and use it to dangle something tantalizing before the nose of a fish. What camera-bedecked man or woman doesn’t want to land a lunker, a line-pulling, back-straining monster that might make its way to the photo Christmas card or the wall of the family room?But the fisherman who drew our attention that day wasn’t fishing for trophies. He was catching bait. For the tourists to use. Bless him.

His role was to find little, squirming, sparkling bait fish. He netted bucketsful—keeping the fishing services supplied.

I admired him for his willingness to catch bait. It’s not nearly as fun as landing a world record something-or-other. But without his efforts, fishing hooks everywhere would remain bare. And bare hooks don’t lure lunkers.

Are you only satisfied with lunkers or are you willing to catch bait? Am I?

As I watch others around me pulling in trophies—world record successes, noteworthy contacts and contracts, photo-op victories, spiritual connections to write home about—I have to ask if I’m willing to be the one throwing out my net for bait.

Have I ignored the significance of the bait-catcher?

Is my behind-the-scenes role helping others land trophies? Is yours? Doesn’t that make us more essential than small?

PRAYER: Lord, teach me how to value the small fish I catch, knowing they may well enable others to catch the big ones.

“I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:6, KJV).

Today’s devotional is by Cynthia Ruchti, writer/producer of THE HEARTBEAT OF THE HOME radio ministry and president of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW). She is the author of They Almost Always Come Home (Abingdon Press Fiction) and the soon-to-be-released The Heart’s Harbor in A Door County Christmas novella collection. Cynthia writes stories of hope-that-glows-in-the-dark (www.cynthiaruchti.com).