The two fishing buddies lived for this day. Retirement arrived and they were
ready for celebration.
They get up later than usual and rather than heading to their offices,
they turn their boat-towing truck toward the lake.
What a day. No worry about missing work. No worry about catching up tomorrow.
No worry about catching fish because they could try again as early as tomorrow.
No worry about wives fussing about them fishing because the wives worry more
about having them around the houses all day.
The two fishing buddies lived for this day. Retirement arrived and they were
ready for celebration.
They get up later than usual and rather than heading to their offices,
they turn their boat-towing truck toward the lake.
What a day. No worry about missing work. No worry about catching up tomorrow.
No worry about catching fish because they could try again as early as tomorrow.
No worry about wives fussing about them fishing because the wives worry more
about having them around the houses all day.
On their way to their usual fishing lake, they decide they have the time to
try another lake they have never found the time to fish. At the fork of the
road, they turn toward their symbol of freedom.
These are not Baptist deacons; they are not Baptists at all. When fishing gets
slow in the middle of the afternoon, one of the buddies reaches into his bag
and pulls out a bottle of strong drink. From that point on, there is more liquid
celebration than fishing.
The more alcohol they consume, the less judgment they have. Before they realize
what happens, they are beset by darkness. There is no moon. The night pulls
a shade of pitch darkness across the heavenly expanse.
They are on a lake with vast shorelines and no inhabitants. They had thoughtlessly
watched all the running lights of the other boats on their ways back to the
launch pass them long ago.
Even in their state of inebriation, they know they are in serious trouble.
Significant amounts of standing timber and stumps lurk just below the water
line of this isolated lake. Someone with clearer thinking would have told them
to drop anchor and wait for morning light. But their judgment is impaired. They
decide they will try to head back to the boat launch and their awaiting truck.
One of the men gets on the fishing boats bow with a flashlight to watch
for stumps, logs, rocks, trees. They will follow the shoreline until they get
to the launch, they think. They filled up with gas to start off their retirement
in a proper fashion, so they believe they can make it back to the launch, although
they have absolutely no idea how far away from it their fishing has taken them.
They leave their running lights off, believing they will run down the battery.
All night long, the man sits on the bow, shouting back to his friend at the
helm of the boat, “Go left. Go right. Okay, now straight . . . Right, right.
I said right!”
They are amazed that they are so far from the launch, but they are pleased
that they seem to be traveling without collisions of significant impact. Their
depth finder keeps them at a safe depth.
As the night wears on, they become more clear thinking as their unwise celebrating
wears off. They know they have traveled enough to be half way to Hawaii, if
they had been on the ocean. They wonder, “Have we long since passed the
launch?”
They turn back and begin following the shoreline in the opposite direction.
No boat launch. Nothing.
Finally, the sun begins to give its pre-sunrise glow to what had been the dark
and heavy night. As the sunlight arrives, so does the light of understanding.
Under the dawning of the sun, they realize that for hours, they have been circling
a large island in the middle of the lake.
There are many reasons the Bible uses darkness as an analogy for evil. There
are so many parallel illustrations about darkness and light in this story, to
single out one of them robs you of creatively thinking about them. The bottom
line is, when your life seems to be going in circles, it may be. What you might
need is some heavenly light.
There is no word on what the men told their wives when they finally got home.