The Three Fishermen: An Unexpected Journey of Faith

By Wayne Bender

What would you do if you unexpectedly found yourself stranded on a desert island? Youd simply pull out your cell phone and call or text for help, of course! But what if you had no cell phoneor no water, clothes or any other necessities? Youd pray to be rescued, for survival, and for your very life. God would hear your prayers and answer them. But youd have to listen carefully for the answers, because they dont usually come how or when we expect, and we sometimes discover clarification in surprising places.

God breaks into our lives when and where we least expect.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 19, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490868141

Wayne Bender

A lifelong Midwesterner, Wayne Bender was born, raised and educated in Illinois. Completely disregarding Horace Greeley’s famous advice, he went east some years ago to grow old with the country. He is now retired from the practice of law and lives quietly in the Indianapolis area with his wife. Wayne is a devoted Christian who was unexpectedly blessed with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get away from the world to pray earnestly and personally experience how God answers prayers.   Wayne prays regularly, but only sails about once every ten years.

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The Three Fishermen

AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY OF FAITH

Wayne Bender

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Copyright © 2015 Wayne Bender.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture quotations from the Holy Bible, New International Version ® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, NRSV copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the New King James Version®. NKJV copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version Bible (KJV) are in the public domain.

The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, Second Edition, copyright © 1965 by J.R.R. Tolkien. All rights reserved.

The Little Engine That Could, copyright © 1976, 1961, 1954, 1945, 1930 by Platt & Munk, Publishers. All rights reserved.

A Tale of Two Cities is in the public domain.

Nautical charts from the US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, are in the public domain.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

ISBN: 978-1-4908-6813-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-6815-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-6814-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015901389

WestBow Press rev. date: 02/13/2015

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Preface

I. The Sound

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

II. The Marsh

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

III. The Island

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

Afterword

In memory of Roger M. Kunkel:

monk, mentor and friend

Acknowledgments

Thanks to David R. Boone, without whose generous invitation to go sailing, this story could not even have been imagined, much less written.

Thanks to the anonymous Virginia waterman for rescuing us from Gilligan’s Island.

Thanks to my wife, Pat, for loving me before, during and after I wrote this story.

Thanks to God for everything!

Preface

How do we stay in touch with God in today’s world, which has become so very complicated?

We are overwhelmed by technology, which is almost incomprehensibly wondrous. As a result, we no longer need be out of touch with anyone; almost everything in the world is literally at our fingertips. Atop the constant din of television, radio and computers, we also have our smartphones, tablets, media players, gaming systems, wireless devices … the list goes on and on, with exciting new toys becoming necessities every day. But hidden under the slick, sexy marketing appeal of the technology lurks a much darker side of our insatiable addiction to it. An army of these electronic devices constantly barrages our consciousness with information we can never hope to absorb, sort, prioritize or process. We are immobilized by information overload.

Amid the never-ending thunder of this new virtual reality that has now become daily life, God’s quiet messages to us are frequently drowned out and lost. This unfortunate trend is spiritually and morally debilitating, both to us individually and collectively as a people. In these troubling times of such great unrest, God’s guidance is as important—if not more important—than ever before, yet we seem to ask and listen for it less and less, and we hear it almost not at all. Minimizing God, intentionally or otherwise, does not bode well.

This is a story about the power of prayer and listening for God’s answers. It tells how I was blessed with the good fortune to be handed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity while on a sailing vacation to unplug in order to pray earnestly and consciously experience God’s answers to my prayers. The story is written for the layperson of average faith; no extraordinary biblical or theological knowledge is required to understand and appreciate it. Likewise, no unusual degree boating knowledge is required. I do assume that most readers are familiar with common nautical terms such as starboard, port, bow and stern, though some less-familiar terms are also used and explained in the footnotes.

Most of the Bible verses quoted are taken from the New International Version, though I have used other translations in a few cases owing to my own peculiar preferences regarding certain passages. While I do recommend having one’s Bible at hand while reading, it is not essential.

Like many of us, I am usually too self-absorbed to pay much attention to God, except perhaps during that one hour each Sunday morning and rote prayers at mealtime. Seriously, who needs God, anyway—especially living in the progressive, enlightened society that America has become? I have always been, and will always be, in sole and complete control of my life and destiny, answerable to none but myself—just another victim of the same Big Lie which so easily seduces all of us. That delusion had become the very core of my existence; the reality, however, was that I have never been in control of anything. But I couldn’t see that, of course, trapped in my carnival hall of mirrors, gleefully flattering myself with the multiple distorted reflections grinning back from everywhere I turned. There seemed no way out; sadder still, I didn’t even realize that I needed to get out.

With that all-too-common attitude as my life’s backdrop, I desperately needed help to find my direction again, so God sent me a wake-up call. Mine didn’t come in the form of a six-winged seraph brandishing a burning coal, obviously, but it got my attention just the same. On the sound, in the marsh and on the island, unexpectedly having had the deafening drone of life’s myriad daily distractions suddenly silenced, I was finally ready, willing and able to listen again to the age-old message.

In the grand scheme, even had our little escapade been reported to the authorities, it would never merit even a footnote in the annals of great Chesapeake Bay rescues—and for good reasons. Monday-morning sea captains sip their Jägermeister and point out all the things we did wrong, didn’t do, or should have done. We were never in any real danger, they insist, consulting their smartphones and then condescendingly pontificating on what they would have done in our place. Naysayers maintain that many of the details have been exaggerated or fabricated, or that it never happened at all. Cynics quickly cry out that we were only on that island for sixteen hours, not sixteen days. Lawyers dwell on small details of the regulations we disregarded. Atheists refuse to see God’s hand in any of it, while agnostics contend the story provides no evidence that proves anything one way or the other. And no doubt, some refined couch potato will claim that an average episode of the reality show Survivor is more exciting, dangerous and realistic than was our adventure. (Not to diminish the cultural significance of that incomparable television experience, but had there been makeup artists and a camera crew just a few feet away in a network powerboat, I somehow have to doubt that we ever would have felt ourselves in any genuine peril. Where then would have been the reality?)

But to these critics, all of whom entirely miss the point of the story, my response is the same: it really doesn’t matter. Whether truth or fiction, whether our circumstances were actually as dire as they seemed, or whether we acted prudently, God’s constant and ageless song remains the same. My goal was neither to document a daring, historic rescue nor to spin a good seafaring yarn in the best traditions of cheap fiction. Rather, this book is my attempt to relate a life-altering experience in the hope that I can share at least some of its fundamental lessons.

Two days after our sailing adventure, we ate supper in an Asian bistro, where a fortune cookie aptly offered this pithy bit of wisdom: There is no better sparring partner than adversity. Viewed in the secular sense that no doubt was intended, this seems to imply that through our own struggles, we—being the truly awesome people that we are, and using only our own strength, skill and wits—can rise above anything that puny life throws at us. A nice, inspiring sentiment, to be sure, and a view that meshes perfectly into today’s self-centered, hedonistic iWorld. But that view is also dead wrong: had I relied only on my own strength, skill and wits that afternoon on the sound, the Reverend and I would both be dead today. To what avail are skill and wits when the elements of chance and nature unexpectedly overcome us? Moreover, whence comes our strength when we think we have none left?

The psalmist once asked where to look for help and then realized that his help came from the Lord, who made heaven and earth (Ps. 121:1–2). In a nutshell, that’s what I learned over those two days: our strength comes from God. All of our petty plans, struggles and accomplishments are meaningless—chasing after the wind, Ecclesiastes tells us—unless we choose to see them as opportunities to commune with God in prayer to try to discern His will for us. With all due respect to Mr. Emerson,¹ we cannot exist in complete self-reliance; we must rely on His wisdom, goodness, mercy and strength. It is God who is our source of untapped strength when we are convinced that we have none left to spar with adversity. We are not in charge of our lives! We must learn to let go of our delusions of control and trust God, as He is in charge. He will resolve things according to His plans, in His time. Trust God.

I’ve heard it said that there are no atheists in foxholes, that is, everyone instinctively seeks a divine power when faced with an extreme life situation. Whether or not this is true, I cannot say. But I can