In a video on his publisher’s website, Eugene Peterson tells of watching a kingfisher repeatedly dive for fish in a lake. Peterson counted 37 dives before the kingfisher caught its supper! “And he’s the king fisher!” Peterson chuckles. From that bird-watching episode, he gleaned a ministry lesson: It may take a long time and many attempts — maybe dozens! — before something works out.
God calls us to live out his love faithfully, even when we don’t seem to be accomplishing anything. Maybe we extend 36 invitations to worship, work 36 monthly shifts at a food bank or utter 36 prayers without seeing results. “What’s the point?” we wonder. But the kingfisher urges us on: “Maybe number 37 is the charm!”
In the words of St. Paul (and mixing fishing and farming metaphors): “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9, NIV).
Little Flatrock Christian Church 