The Story

An American business man was vacationing in a small coastal fishing village. One morning he stood on the pier and watched as a small boat docked. Inside the boat was one fisherman with several large yellowfin tuna. He complimented the man on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

“Only a little while,” the fisherman said.

“Why don’t you stay out longer and catch more fish?”  The business man asked.

“I have enough to take care of my needs today.” The fisherman replied.

“Well what do you do with the rest of your time?” The man asked.

The fisherman looked around the village and smiled. “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siestas with my wife, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.”

The business man scoffed. “I have an MBA, and I can help you grow your business. You should spend more time fishing. With the additional proceeds, you can buy a bigger boat. With the profits from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats. Eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You could move from this small coastal fishing village and live in a big city, like Los Angeles. Eventually you could move to New York City and run your expanding enterprise from there.”

“How long would this take?” The fisherman asked.

 “15 to 20 years.” He replied.

The fisherman looked puzzled. “And then what?”

The business man laughed. “That’s the best part. When the time is right you announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public. You would make millions!”

“Millions? And then what?” The fisherman asked.

The business man looked around the village and smiled.

“Well then you could retire! You could move to a small coastal fishing village. You could sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings and sip wine, and play your guitar with your amigos.”

The Moral of The Story

Aside from the fact that the business man suffers from good old American Greed—which is a gimme—I think this story also talks about one of my favorite “T” words: Trust.

When I pondered the word Trust, the story immediately came to mind. My thoughts went back to my post Perspectives on Possibilities, and that whole erroneous mindset that prompts me to analyze and categorize my hobbies and passions, and discard those that I’ll (most likely) never make money at—regardless of how fulfilling they may be.  

What I’m thinking here is that Trusting God (which needs to be done in order to surrender) is about handing over those old ideals. Just like that business man, I find myself being lured into the trap—that old rat race mentality.

I start thinking that I need to make millions (A.K.A. more than I really need) and stockpile the cash so that one day I’ll be able to rest easy. The flipside to that thought is that—if I simply put my Trust in God—I can rest easy RIGHT NOW. I can have peace of mind today because, just like that fisherman…

I have enough to take care of my needs today.

—Janet

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

Matthew 6:34

The featured image is something I made for fun. It’s a coastal village made out of fabric. I was inspired by an artist I came across on Facebook (sorry I can’t find his name at the moment!). He uses denim to construct art and it’s amazing. Mine is strictly Photoshop, using a pattern and fills, but it was a blast to make none-the-less!