One day, a bird was talking to a fish.
“I’ll never know, I will never understand how you can stand to always be splashing around in that cold, wet lake,” he said to his friend the trout swimming below him. “I could not bear it. It is too confining. You must long to be like me, soaring among the clouds and taking my rest upon tree branches.”
Rich MusslerThe trout replied to his friend: “Jay, no, I wouldn’t, actually. It’s a blessing for me to be here. This is where I live. This is my home. I’m comfortable here. My friends are here. I have no desire to fly around like you. If I were taken out of my element, I’d die unless I was tossed back in—and the sooner the better.”
That is how I feel about being in church. I think it is generally true with most believers.
Our native element
The native element of the Christian is his church. He’s comfortable there. His friends are with him. He has no desire to escape the family of God or from his Master’s will and service; and if for a time he is taken away from church, he grows uncomfortable. The Christian feels he would die if he could not worship the Lord in church with other believers on Sunday mornings. Like a fish out of water, he wants to be tossed back in—and the sooner the better.
The unbeliever looks at us and says, “I’ll never know, I will never understand how you can bear to always be in church. It’s full of narrow-minded hypocrites! And you give them your money? I don’t get it. I could not bear it. You must long to live like me, soaring among intellectuals and free to take my rest upon any branch of theory that suits me.”
Um, no. I wouldn’t, actually.
Different desires of the heart
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The Bible teaches that if we delight ourselves in the Lord, he will give us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4). As believers, the desire of our hearts is not the same as the desires of unbelievers. A fish doesn’t desire what a jay desires.
Delight yourselves in the Lord, my friends. He alone gives us our hearts’ desire, for he alone knows that what our hearts most desire is more and more and more of the Lord Jesus Christ.
A believer out of church is a fish out of water. If you find yourself out, get tossed back in. And the sooner the better.
Rich Mussler is a writer from Flower Mound who swims with other fish at First Baptist Church in Lewisville.
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