New Life

Budding willows means new life...always a welcome!

There's a lot going on right now...baseball season is upon us, the trees are budding and Easter flowers are literally in full bloom throughout the Mid Atlantic. Water temperatures are warming up and the fish are biting long before they normally do after ice out. Fishing is good, life is good and God is good!

Robust bluegills in the shallows...yeah man!

Put and take trout options at the local lakes.

Aggressive largemouths in the ponds.

Lots of different species are chewin' right now...stocker rainbow trout, bass in local lakes and the always fun bluegill gig that is my personal favorite. My friend Bob, the Carp Whisperer and I recently spent a few days on the Eastern Shore and caught a mess of panfish at a variety of small public mill ponds...check it out...

Wye Mills Lake was calm, with smallish panfish.

Smithville Lake was serene and peaceful.

Mr Bob scored numerous fine red eared sunfish at Smithville...cool!

Marshyhope Creek yielded big tidal gills...nice!

And after we came back home, we jumped head first into some first class bass and panfishing in our local Mason Dixon waters. Lookie here...

Lean bass went 19.5 inches, my best so far in 2016.

I never met a 10-inch bluegill I didn't like!

First big crappie of the year was this big male suiting up for the spawn.

And check out this crazy big pumpkingill at 10 7/8 inches.

Another serious hen at 10 3/4 inches!

Yes, numbers and quality of a variety of species this year...and it's not even April yet! Most years, we're mired in a pit of chilly temperatures, frosty nights and struggling flower buds that get burnt by the chill of a mid-20 degree night. Still, I'm walking around with gloves on and long johns...old, and cold!

But the coolest thing I like about spring is not the warmth or the sunlight  or the emerging plants or even the great fishing that comes with all that. The greatest parrallel I can see from the emergence of spring is how my life emerged from a winter-like cold and darkness to burst into an episode of 'new life'. When I was a young man, I thought I knew exactly what I needed to make me happy. I chased a bunch of silly dreams thinking it would satisfy me and make me 'whole'. Most folks would have written it off as 'running with the wrong crowd' or being 'easily influenced' by 'bad people' BULL CRAP! I WAS the wrong crowd! I didn't need any help from anybody...I could sin just fine on my own. Because that is the nature of man from the day he emerges from the womb...to be sinful, self-centered and seeking our will, not God's.

Had it not been for a series of addictions, heartbreaks and encounters with one Christian believer after another, I would likely have continued on and forced my 'happyness' with continued sinful, rotten behavior. Today, too many millions of people place their faith and future in things like sports, money, presteige, possessions, position and self-image. Their homes, autos and lawns become their gods...They worship the almighty dollar and teach their children a heritage of stealing and lying and cheating on school work, taxes and job sites. As long as lying and cheating benefits you financially, and no one challenges you to be accountable, everything is just fine. Sadly, relationships mean little to them, especially a relationship with a gracious and loving God who can change their lives fore ever, for the good, and for eternity.

My defining moment, of my entire life , occured on August 14, 1975 in the basement of a small church in Westminster , MD. when the preacher led me through the sinners prayer and I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. Some things changed immediately, and some others took a while, and, to this day, some sin issues are still wrestling with me. But there was no doubt...change had indeed come! New Life was emerging in me and continues to sprout each and every day, in some form, from this transformation from death into life. My priorities changed, my Lord blessed me in ways I can not explain, and I knew...I KNEW that my life would never, ever be the same. Hallelujah to the Lamb!

I really dig what it says in Philippians 3:13 where Paul explains...
'Brothers, I do not consider myself to have yet taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.'

Praise God for New Life!