Catch and Release

~ From Derek MIller

 

God is so vast and amazing that we try our best to come up with ways that we can understand Him.  Many of these ways, are rooted in misconceptions.  As we develop more and more technology, it seems we get better at attempting to define and confine God in a box of these misconceptions. 

 

We have the OnStar God.  He is the one that we call on when we get into trouble along the road of life.  We think we can press a button, get help and once the crisis is averted, move on our way.  This is similar to treating God like a genie in the bottle who we can summon just when we perceive that we need Him.  Then like a disposable wipe, we just throw Him aside until we need Him again in another moment of crisis.

 

Another misconception is the iPod God in which we pick and choose the attributes of God similar to downloading individual songs instead of the entire album.  In other words, we pick what WE want to believe about God and how we should interact with Him.  The problem with this is that we miss out on the richness of all that God has to offer.

 

Third, there is the Video Game Score God.  This is one that many struggle with.  They recognize that they cannot fully achieve what they want or ought to do as they live their lives.  Just as with a lot of video games, the score you get on one level determines whether or not you can advance to the next level.  Is that really how God will decide whether or not you can go to heaven when you die?  Are you able to earn your way into heaven simply through doing more works alone?  Of course not.

 

Why do we do these things and why do we keep on repeating these same misconceptions, in varying forms, of God?  God is our Heavenly Father and wants to build a lasting relationship with you and me.  The Bible is full of stories of how God wants to interact and intersect with our lives on more than just a surface level.  It is important for us to read the Bible and recognize those stories and how they apply to our lives.

Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

1 John 4:8b-10 says, ". . .God is love.  This is how God showed his love amount us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

 

Note the active verbs in these verses:  God demonstrated, God sent and God gave. God's love for us is not theoretical or hypothetical; it is practical and evident.  God proved that He loves us by what He did for us.  And in every case in these verses, at the center of God's love was His son, Jesus Christ.  He desires a relationship with us and we need to strive for a relationship with Him.  To fully understand that, take John 3:16 and change it to "God so loves insert my name, that He gave his one and only Son. . ."  We have the opportunity to have a saving relationship with Christ and that does not stop there.  Our life does not just plateau and cruise along after that.  We have to develop that rich, deep relationship with Him to deal with what life throws our way.

 

In the book, "Same Kind Of Different As Me", the authors tell their story of how they met.  Ron Hall is a very wealthy white man who is an art dealer living his life, but missing out on the richness of God's love.  Denver Moore is an African-American man who has been bumped around by life and is homeless.  God intersects their lives when Ron's wife, Debbie insists that she and Ron go work in a homeless shelter.  Ron is looking to just get this chore completed and not really looking at investing his life deeply.  Debbie notices Denver is always very stand offish and tells Ron to befriend Denver.  Ron, trying to be compliant with Debbie's request, tells Denver that he wants to be his friend.  To which Denver replies that he has to think about it.

 

A week later, Ron meets up with Denver again at a coffee shop.  It is apparent that Ron has forgotten about asking Denver if he will be his friend.  Denver brings it up and says, "There's somethin' I heard 'bout white folks that bothers me, and it has to do with fishin'.  I heard that when white folks go fishin' they do somethin' called 'catch and release.'"  He went on, "That really bothers me.  I just can't figure it out. 'Cause when colored folks go fishin' we really proud of what we catch, and we take it and show it off to everybody that'll look.  Then we eat what we catch, , ,in other words, we use it to sustain us.  So it really bothers me that white folks would go to all that trouble to catch a fish, then when they done caught it, just throw it back in the water.  So, Mr. Ron, it occurred to me: If you is fishin' for a friend that you just gon' catch and release, then I ain't got no desire to be your friend."  "But if you is lookin' for a real friend, then I'll be one. Forever."

 

We have to undertstand that God is not looking for us to "catch and release" Him, because we do not serve a "catch and release" kind of God.  He wants a relationship with us that is deep and long lasting.  He does not look at "catch and release" as a way to relate to us and that is not the way we should relate to Him either.