FALLING FISH

The headline from our little weekly community newspaper read:

"FISH FROM SKY 
NEARLY CLOBBERS MAN"

No kidding.

It's true.

A 15-inch flounder fell from the sky, and landed right next to a man who had just stepped out of his truck.

He looked up to see what could have dropped the fish and saw a disappointed osprey flying overhead.

Apparently, the osprey caught his lunch from the bay and was able to fly with it in his talons for a short distance. But the fish was too heavy for the osprey to carry and he dropped it.

We scanned the story into the computer and have had some good laughs about it.

Only in a place where the local guys are call "Boggy Boys" (named after Boggy Bayou, a bayou that runs through the town), where the newspaper is called "The Mullet Wrapper," and where the biggest event of the year is called "The Mullet Festival" . . .  could fish actually fall out of the sky.

It's also probably one of the few places where people didn't doubt the story at all.

We live in a place where cast nets are toys, kids learn how to swim and ski before they learn how to ride a bike, and a place where there are more waterfront parks than there are gas stations. A place where dinner comes from a shrimp boat, instead of a meat market.

A place where you don't decide "if" you are going to go swimming, but "where." The spring? The creek? The bayou? The bay? Or the Gulf of Mexico?

We live in a place where it is impossible not to hear God speaking through His handiwork.

It surrounds us.

He certainly spoke to me through the over-confident osprey and the dropped flounder.

He reminded me that I've been like the osprey over and over again, with the same results.

I've tried to carry things that are just too heavy for me.

I've tried to carry people, circumstances, and messes that I was never supposed to carry.

Dropped "flounders." Dropped circumstances.  Dropped loved ones.

The outcome is always the same.

When anything or anyone tries to carry a load that's too heavy, they will eventually drop it.

I've asked myself  "why?"  Why have I continually thought I could carry the loads?

I've asked myself, why did I try, when so many times like the osprey flying overhead, I've ended up squawking about something I dropped.

My squawking usually involves the same phrases: I'm sorry. I thought I could. I won't do it again.

But I do.

Over and over.

Why?

I've searched my heart and I've come up with these reasons. . .

Well, first of all, mommas are supposed to fix things. We are supposed to protect and rescue others. I believe it comes under our job description. I see my name written in big bold letters on problems, heart-ache, and the messes of life.

Secondly, I believe that whatever is going on, whatever is broken, certainly has to be in some way or another, my fault. So . . . it's my responsibility to make it right. To undo the damage. I believe the lie "that it is all up to me."

The saddest reason, and the biggest lie that drives me to try to carry loads that were never meant for me to carry, is that God won't do what He has promised. It is a total and sinful unbelief in God's Word and in His Character.

In Beth Moore's Living Free, she states, "the Greek word for unbelief is apistos,. . . not worthy of confidence, untrustworthy . . . a thing not to be believed, incredible."

Meaning I guess, as hard as it is to confess, that is what I say about My God every time I think "it" is up to me. Every time I try to fix and rescue. Every time I try to carry a load that's way too heavy for me, and a load that has His Name on it instead of mine.

I'm tired of "dropping" people I love. I'm tired of trying to fix everything, and only causing more hurt and damage.

Most of all, I am tired of calling my God untrustworthy. I'm tired of not having confidence in The One who is the only source of any confidence at all that I could have in this life.

The fall the flounder took when it was dropped by the osprey didn't kill it.

But the man that it almost clobbered in the head, took the fish home and ate it for lunch.

I thank God, that by His mercies, He has protected who and what I've dropped.

I am thankful that He is faithful when I'm not.
(2 Timothy 2:13)


"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."  Matthew 11:28-30


"If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself." 2 Timothy 2:13