Determination

Osprey seem to be very good at catching fish. Yesterday, I kayaked the Catawba again, and saw several osprey swoop down from the treetops, snag a fish with surgical precision, and then return to their nest. I suspect they were feeding young osprey. On occasion, the fish would squirm so violently that the osprey would drop it. I wondered if the osprey became depressed and unmotivated after the fish it had worked so hard to procure managed to escape. It was hard to tell from the osprey's expression. It would pause at a tree top, and then swoop down and plummet into the water again. It repeated this until another wiggling fish was in its talons.

I could learn a lesson from the osprey.

Sometimes we catch what we hope to the first time we try. Sometimes we don't. Sometimes we work and labor in vain, to come tantalizingly close to our goal and then see it wrangle out of our grasp. At times we haul in great bounty, but other times, the net comes up empty. I watched the osprey drop a fish, and then without pause, torpedo back into the water, and this time as it rose into the blue sky, water glistening and rolling off its wings, it held onto the fish.


Luke 5:1-11 (NIV)
One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. [2] He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. [3] He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. [4] When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” [5] Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” [6] When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. [7] So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. [8] When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” [9] For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, [10] and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” [11] So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.



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