Walton's Rucksack

  I love bonfires. I think it's probably a "man thing", but the bonfires that we had at the first couple of Christian Anglers Retreats when we were camping on the Dixon's farm were almost as much of a highlight as the fishing. We sat talking and staring into the flames as they leapt skywards, conversations about fishing and faith and life, with all the while the flames exerting a mesmeric pull - you just can't not gaze at a fire as it burns brightly. Fire and flames feature a lot in Scripture, too. Timothy is told by Paul to "fan into flame" the gift he has, the pre-incarnate Christ appears in the flames with Meshach, Shadrach and Abednigo in the "firey furnace", and when the Holy Spirit shows up at Pentecost what look like flames are seen on the heads of the now emboldened apostles. A friend of mine wrote a book a few years ago. Its title was "Fire of the Word", and it's main point was that reading the Bible shouldn't just be...

  My match fishing career didn't last long- in fact it was just one solitary season in the year that I turned 14. My two brothers and I were part of the Dinton Pastures junior fishing team that competed in a small league with six other teams in the Farnham Junior League. Six anglers fished for each team in every match, points were awarded for position in section, and there were small prizes for all section winners. I won my section once (in the first match of the season) and, for my efforts, was awarded a reel case which I still have to this day. Ultimately, I discovered that the fish were the only competition I needed, and drew stumps on my match fishing career at the end of that season. However, what I remember most about that year was not the pressure of fishing in the matches themselves, but of fishing in the "trials" for the team. Although all but one of the matches were fished on lakes or ponds, the trial was on a small river, and about 20 young anglers had to fish ...

  I'm one of those people who dwells on their mistakes. In the 20 years I played amateur football I won three league winners medals, but never played in a cup final. I played in two semi finals, both of which we lost by the odd goal and on one one of those occasions it was my mistake that led to the other team's winning goal in extra time. Twenty five years on, I still regularly replay the moment in my mind. It's the same with fishing- when I lose a fish, I find myself endlessly revisiting the event, wondering what I should have done differently. Like Sinatra, I've got a few regrets! I'll never get a chance to replay those two semi-finals (and now I'm in my 50's I'll never play in another one!) or to play those lost fish differently. Thankfully, it's very different with God. Christianity is all about "second chances" (and third, and fourth etc!) and "new starts." It begins with the ultimate new start when we turn to follow Jesus (...