“This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it.” Psalm 118:24
An older businessman was standing at the pier of a small coastal village when a boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the boat were several large yellowfin tuna.
The businessman complimented the fisherman on the quality of his catch. “How long did it take you to catch them?” he asked.
“Only a little while,” the man replied.
“Why don’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?” the businessman asked.
The fisherman smiled. “I have enough to support my family’s immediate needs.”
The businessman didn’t understand what he thought was a lack of ambition. He continued to drill the fisherman with questions. “But there’s so much daylight left. What on earth do you do with the rest of your time?”
The fisherman smiled: “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, spend time with my lovely wife, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my friends. I have a full and busy life.”
The businessman scoffed: “I have a master’s degree in business and could obviously help you a lot. You should spend more time fishing and with the extra money you’d make, you could buy a bigger boat and, with the earnings from that bigger boat, you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats.”
The fisherman listened with a smile on his face. The businessman continued. “With your fleet of boats, you could skip the middleman and sell your catch directly to the consumers instead of selling to a middleman. Eventually you could open your own factory. You would control the product, processing and distribution. Of course, you’d need to leave this little village and move to a big city. Once there, you could expand your enterprise even more.”
The fisherman nodded politely as he asked, “And how long would all this take?”
The businessman looked up at the deep blue sky as he added in his head before answering. “Probably 15 to 20 years.”
The fisherman listened and asked, “But then what?”
The businessman’s face lit up. “That’s the best part. When the time is right, you could sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions.”
The fisherman looked the businessman directly in his eyes, “Then what?”
The businessman thought for a minute and then looked defeated as he smiled and said, “Then I guess you would retire, move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, spend time with your lovely wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your friends…”
Sometimes we can focus so long on tomorrow, we lose sight of today. Certainly, God wants us to be good stewards in our lives, but not at the expense of us forgetting to rejoice and be glad in the day He has made and given to us.
Watering the Seeds
What are some things in your life that you are putting off until some later day?
How can your faith help you to today find the joy you are planning to experience in some unknown tomorrow?
