The Fish Tank
At their school carnival, our kids won four free goldfish (lucky us!), so out I went Saturday morning to find an aquarium. The first few I priced ranged from $40 to $70. Then I spotted it-right in the aisle: a discarded 10-gallon display tank, complete with gravel and filter -- for a mere five bucks. Sold!
Of course, it was nasty and dirty, but the savings made the two hours of clean-up a breeze. Those four new fish looked great in their new home, at least for the first day. But by Sunday one had died. Too bad, but three remained.
Monday morning revealed a second casualty, and by Monday night a third goldfish had gone belly up. We called in an expert, a member of our church who has a 30-gallon tank. It didn't take him long to discover the problem: I had washed the tank with soap, an absolute no-no. My uninformed efforts had destroyed the very lives I was trying to protect.
Sometimes in our zeal to clean up our own lives or the lives of others, we unfortunately use "killer soaps"-- condemnation, criticism, nagging, fits of temper, negative thoughts and words. We think we're doing right, but our harsh, self-righteous treatment is more than they can bear.
Remember Love is the way to show Jesus Christ to All you come in to contact with. He is the one who cleans the lives. We are simply to introduce the Savior and let Him do the rest.
Jesus promised to make us fishers of men, that we should go out and “catch” the harvest. Like any fisherman would tell you, when the huge ship arrives and offloads the catch, there are those in the processing plant are the ones who clean the fish and do the packaging and distribution. Christians were not equipped to do the cleaning, packaging and distribution as that is the Lord’s work.
Be the fishers of men; you catch them, Jesus will clean them.
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