A proper perspective

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The late Bill Shankly, onetime manager of Liverpool FC, once famously quipped "some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."
He was a great man, and a great football manager, but- on this occasion- he was wrong. I love the game, and played it for 20 years, but when all's said and done it is only an inflated sphere being kicked by 22 men who are all trying to get it to fit into a giant "onion bag" 8 feet high and 21 feet wide.

It's the same with fishing. I love my fishing even more than I love football, but there are more important things than catching fish. Like family .... and faith.

Last Sunday I was preaching in church on a passage from 2 Thessalonians in which the Apostle Paul is writing to a church of new Christians who are being violently persecuted for their faith. His message: "let the up-look transform your outlook." Look beyond your circumstances and view the current moment (difficult though it is) through the lens of your eternal future.
Perspective is everything. 

So, whatever your life looks like at the moment, whether everything in the garden is rosy or if things are hard and you're struggling, gain strength from  the presence of God with you here and now, and from the sure and certain hope of eternal life through Jesus.

Enjoy your fishing, but remember that, important though our hobbies are, there are things that are more important, and keep looking to Jesus the "author and perfecter of our faith." (Hebrews 12:2)


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