A Fish Out of Water
Those who spend time fly fishing for trout must consider all aspects of their target. What do trout feed on? Where do they shelter? When are trout most likely to feed? Where are the pockets and pools in the water flow that will provide the most realistic float? Which of the dozens of flies in the box will trout find most attractive? Study and preparation allow for the opportunity to experience yet again a phrase that gets the heart pounding excitedly, “Fish on!”
After the battle, the fish is briefly removed from the only world it knows before being released to reconsider its eating habits. Until a fish is lifted from the water for hook removal, it probably has no comprehension of being wet. Fish are immersed so thoroughly in their environment that they don’t likely comprehend that they are surrounded by water.
Significant events in our lives alert us to our surroundings, maybe for the first time. Conversations with people who have entirely different life experiences can cause this. Travel can cause our eyes to be opened to cultures other than our own. In these and similar experiences, we begin to truly understand the depth and breadth of the world that God created.
In an instant, we understand a bit more about the “water” in which we have been immersed. Things we take for granted in our existing world do not make sense in this new understanding. Hopefully, we become more open to insight, growth, and development because of experiencing something completely new.
Mark Twain remarked that new experiences and personal development make travel necessary. “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
RPC encourages participation in service opportunities and short-term missions with domestic and international partners. These experiences are often transformational, causing us to evaluate our assumptions about the world and our place in it. They temporarily remove us from the “waters” that surround us. We encourage you to take advantage of all the connections that RPC has established for your own growth and spiritual development. International trips to Guatemala and Kenya are being scheduled for 2023.
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Dan Kreiss, RPC’s Associate Pastor for Mission Outreach, brings with him a heart for service and a diverse array of experiences in the mission field. Be sure to subscribe to the Mission Outreach Blog to read and follow along as he documents his personal journey and shares his vision for RPC’s mission outreach commitment. Along with providing meaningful resources, this blog will help jumpstart the important conversations our church community must be having about missional living.
Dan Kreiss
Rev. Dr. Dan Kreiss is the Associate Pastor for Mission Outreach at RPC. Dan is particularly passionate about encouraging the church to reflect the diversity found in its surrounding community in regard to age, gender, ethnicity, education and economic status.