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    Reflections at First Light: A Fisherman's Devotional
    Reflections at First Light: A Fisherman's Devotional
    Reflections at First Light: A Fisherman's Devotional
    Ebook156 pages3 hours

    Reflections at First Light: A Fisherman's Devotional

    By Al Lindner and Ron Lindner

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    About this ebook

    Al and Ron Lindner, recognized leaders in the sport fishing industry and members of the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame, share stories from their decades-long careers on the water and share the life-changing truths God has taught them along the way.

    See how God "scooped them up into the gentle net of His grace." Discover that He loves to reveal Himself in everyday, routine events as well as moments of trauma, danger, or high-charged adventure. And find inspiring reminders that God can...

    • open doors when you see only dead ends
    • guide you when you don't know which way to turn
    • equip you with everything you need
    • fill you with peace when everything goes south
    • give you your own life-changing story to share with others

    These short reflections will help you sense that God is with you, too, at first light on the water.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarvest House Publishers
    Release dateMay 1, 2015
    ISBN9780736964265
    Reflections at First Light: A Fisherman's Devotional
    Author

    Al Lindner

    Al Lindner is a member of five fishing Halls of Fame, winner of two Bassmaster events, and recipient of the Samuel C. Johnson Fishing Journalist of the Year award. He and his brother, Ron, invented the Lindy Rig and founded the Lindy Tackle Company and In-Fisherman, both of which they later sold.

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      Book preview

      Reflections at First Light - Al Lindner

      Publisher

      Introduction

      AL LINDNER

      It is to be believed, that all the other apostles, after they betook themselves to follow Christ, betook themselves to be fishermen too; for it is certain that the greater number of them were found together, fishing, by Jesus, after his resurrection, as it is recorded in the 21st chapter of Saint John’s Gospel.

      IZAAK WALTON, The Compleat Angler (1653)

      I CAN’T REMEMBER A TIME WHEN I DIDN’T fish. My earliest recollections are of summers I stayed with my grandmother on a lake near Hayward, Wisconsin. I spent countless hours fishing from the shore, wading, and occasionally fishing with my uncles in a boat. I also fished with my older brother, Ron, who is ten years my senior. If I dug the worms, seined the minnows, fixed the tackle, and loaded the boat, he would take me out with him. He told me everyone starts out as a worm boy apprentice, and for years I believed him.

      When I was 16 and enjoying one of my many summers at my grandmother’s, I entered a one-day musky derby—and won! I actually got paid for fishing. I was also interviewed by the local paper and did a snippet for the television sports news in nearby Duluth. With that incredible experience, my fate was sealed. I was destined to become a professional sport fisherman.

      Growing up in Chicago, I was a mediocre student. If I had to write a book report or give a speech, my subject was fishing—always. I had no other hobbies or interests. I didn’t hunt, golf, or collect stamps. In my high school yearbook, I stated that my life goal was to catch a record fish. Outside of a few jobs, the only work I’ve ever known has been directly related to sport fishing.

      Even when an army stint took me to Vietnam, where some guys carried the New Testament with them in the field, I carried Buck Perry’s Spoonplugging or Bill Binkelman’s Nightcrawler Secrets. These tattered, marked, and underlined booklets were as well annotated as many of my fellow soldiers’ Bibles. I could even quote many of the passages verbatim. Except for one horrible night in Vietnam when I didn’t know if I would see the light of day, I gave little thought to God or any lesser subjects that required introspection and study.*

      When I returned home from Vietnam, my piscatory ambitions were running high. In 1967 Ron and I moved from Chicago to Wisconsin to Minnesota to pursue our dream of setting up a resort and guide service and restarting our small tackle-making business. From that point in my life until I retired from fishing the Bassmaster Professional Tournament circuit in 1979, I sometimes logged as many as 300 days on the water in a single year. During these halcyon years, I also promoted lures, made films for television, did radio shows, wrote magazine articles with Ron, and appeared at a seemingly endless parade of sport shows and seminars.

      In retrospect, I see that the schedule was impossible to maintain for very long. Sooner or later, something had to give. Nevertheless, this apprenticeship period allowed me to explore all types of waters in every part of the country, and I kept discovering new ways to catch more and different types of fish. I learned the art and honed the skills of intuitive fishing that would serve me well in the higher ranks of my profession.

      What little time I had for reading during these years was given to books such as Man Against Musky, the Herter’s catalog, Lucas on Bass Fishing, and the Fishing News. My days were spent on the water fishing and guiding, and I devoted my nights to talking fishing in the bars. Unlike Ron, I drank mostly socially, and alcohol never became a significant problem. My real addiction was fishing, and I was hooked big-time! I figured, why waste a day doing something else when I could be on the water—rain or shine, hot or cold, windy or calm? My occasional diversion was chasing women on the really bad-weather days.

      Some go to church and think about fishing; others go fishing and think about God.

      TONY BLAKE

      All this time, the God I didn’t know or care about not only allowed me to have these experiences but also kept me safe. God had a plan for my life that would turn my all-consuming passion into a lifestyle that was both acceptable and useful to Him. Not surprisingly, a few changes were in order—changes that dramatically impacted my fish all the time obsession.

      The changes seemed to happen fast, all in the span of a few years. First I got married. Then Ron and I began publishing a magazine and producing a television show. Soon our family grew to four, and then, most importantly, I came to faith in Jesus Christ and was, as they say, born again. That changed everything.

      When I received Jesus as Lord of my life, I was relieved that He did not ask me to go into some other endeavor. I was in my late thirties, and fishing was the only thing I knew how to do. He graciously allowed me to continue to fish hard in the coming decades, but He made certain that the intensity of my earlier years gave way to a more balanced mode of living. I gave up the Bassmaster and Bass Casters Association professional tournament fishing circuits, where I dearly loved to compete, and I learned to be content with a few select competitive events every year just to keep my hand in.

      During this phase of life, I started attending church regularly, and with my eyes newly opened, I devoured the Bible as I once did books on fishing. I was thrilled to learn that many of Jesus’s first inductees (the apostles) were fishermen and that Jesus was evidently well acquainted with life in the boat. It quickly became evident that fishing, much like farming, football, flying, or any other human endeavor, is an effective setting for modern-day parables, teeming with life lessons.

      As I started to share my Christian faith with others, most of whom were fellow fishermen, I found myself naturally using fishing experiences to illustrate and explain the workings of the kingdom of God. I sensed that God, the supreme conservationist, did not intend to waste all of my earlier efforts and experiences. Instead, God used for His own purposes the gift He had given me for fishing and the fishing experiences Ron and I accumulated through our many years as professional anglers.

      When Ron speaks to other fishermen about how Jesus Christ saved him from a life of alcoholism, he sometimes mentions being scooped up by the gentle net of God’s grace. He might also say, God does not practice catch and release. Instead, He puts us in His live well of eternal life—forever! The patterns of our lives and our personalities are quite different, but Ron and I have found ourselves constantly sharing our faith through fishing analogies.

      In this book, we retell some real-life events

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