{"id":3089,"date":"2012-05-14T09:45:24","date_gmt":"2012-05-14T16:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=3089"},"modified":"2012-05-14T09:45:24","modified_gmt":"2012-05-14T16:45:24","slug":"cast-your-bread-on-the-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2012\/05\/14\/cast-your-bread-on-the-waters\/","title":{"rendered":"Cast your Bread on the Waters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"Boat Buoy<\/em>, oil, 11×14, click for larger view.<\/a><\/h6>\n

A few posts ago I mentioned chumming. It was one of the points in What I Learned about Life from Dad’s Fishing, <\/em>which\u00a0said, \u201cWhen chumming, be extravagant.\u201d Chumming is the strategy of throwing bucket-fulls of very small fish over the side of an ocean-going fishing boat to attract big fish. If the fisherman don’t do it, chances are slim that any fish will come their way.<\/p>\n

So often, if not always, illustrations from the natural world also fit in the spiritual. And here it is in Ecclesiastes: Cast your bread on the waters, for after many days you will find it again.<\/strong>*<\/p>\n

Why \u201cbread\u201d I don’t know, unless it was bread that was lacking. That’s how it works.<\/p>\n

One time, many years ago, in the midst of a particularly challenging time financially, I was moved in my spirit to give away my boat. \u201cWhat? My sailboat?\u201d It was a beautiful mahogany-hulled racing sloop that I’d long loved. But we were going through a life change and moving to a place where it wouldn’t be useful and when I asked what to do with it, this is what I heard in my mind, “Give it away.” So after a moment’s wrestling, and checking with Anne, I committed to go through with it. We donated it to a worthy cause which sold it and used the money.<\/p>\n

We were no poorer for doing it, and possibly a good deal richer in the soul. It was years later that it began to dawn on me that every time I came near water, whether lake, river or ocean, a boat was provided for our pleasure and for however long we wanted to use it.<\/p>\n

I could wonder if the translation should have been, \u201cCast your BOAT upon the waters and after many days . . .” except\u00a0I’ve seen this reality happen in many, many ways, both tangible and intangible.\u00a0It’s got to be the best of all investment strategies.<\/p>\n

Funny how it can be so scary at the front end.<\/p>\n

All it is is a risk!<\/p>\n

All it requires is faith!<\/p>\n

(That’s real faith . . . the action kind.)<\/p>\n

“But what if I get it wrong?” I ask. “What if my motive is selfish?<\/p>\n

Seems to me we’ll never get those motives completely pure. A certain self-interest is built into every one of us . . . and built into the promise.<\/p>\n

“But what if it doesn’t work? Then I get no big fish and all the little fish are gone, too!”<\/p>\n

Yes, doubt undermines. If doubt wins there will be no chumming at all. And no big fish.<\/p>\n

Giving costs. Spreading the bread involves faith. We’re dealing here in the invisible world where our physical eyes don’t serve. In fact, they work against us.<\/p>\n

Who can say what’s really going on in the invisible world? Except this: “Not nothing<\/em>.\u201d Behind the scenes the tiniest detail matters, nothing goes unnoticed, and after many days, every investments receives return.<\/p>\n

You can bank on it.<\/p>\n

Get spreading some bread.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

__________________________<\/p>\n

*Ecclesiastes 11:1<\/p>\n

Next: Vows and the Work of Our Hands.<\/em> Coming Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s one that makes so much sense we can bank on it, yet it requires such risk of (inner) resources we can get fearful and deny ourselves true wealth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3089"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3089"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3302,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3089\/revisions\/3302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}