FISH ARE FRIENDS

I love Bruce from Finding Nemo.  In this quote from the movie he really defines his life, "I am a nice shark, not a mindless eating machine. If I am to change this image, I must first change myself. Fish are friends, not food."  What's not to love about a shark who wants to turn his food into friends?  There is a moment in the movie where you see his philosophy waver.  It seems that the word food has become more important than friend.  Scary!!!  Especially for the fish, but like all great movies of this genre all is well.

I feel like Bruce sometimes.  I have appetites in my own life that I try to overcome.  Bruce's appetite was fish.  What's yours?  I've often wondered if Paul from the Bible had that same problem.  Maybe that was his thorn in the flesh. He said this in II Corinthians "Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn't get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, My grace is enough; it's all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become." (Quoted from The Message)  I don't really know what it was and it doesn't really matter.  What I do know is that I have, and I think we all have things in our lives that Satan has introduced  that hold us back.  I know I do.

So what do we do with these appetites, these thorns?  I think we take a hint from Bruce.  He said, "I'm a nice shark, not a mindless eating machine."  Maybe this is a stretch, but this reminds me that I'm a child of the King.  I'm a nice human, not a mindless bad guy.  I do bad guy things sometimes, but I believe that "fish are friends, not food".  Well I guess what I believe is that the shark in me is overcome by God's grace in my life.  I get pushed to my knees sometimes, and it's then I need to realize God's grace in my life, and must know that all my baggage and foibles are just what allows Him to work through me in greater ways than I could have ever imagined.

This will be a good day to find the inner Bruce in all of us.  God told Paul that his thorn (Bruce's fish) had to stay, so His power could work through the weakness. Let's ask God to use those appetites in our lives that we feel draw us away from Him to His glory.  Let Him over come them, and use us in ways we couldn't have even imagined.  I get this.  Even as I'm typing part of me is screaming "I'm not worthy!" (Hello Wayne and Garth), but I feel his grace and power, so I type, I walk with Him, and allow Him to direct what I'm gonna do today (Phineas and Ferb). 

Satan Don't Hit Me With Them Negative Waves Today,

Fosh