The Unwritten Rule

Since I was a small child, I have had a fear of aquatic life. How that fear was developed however, I will leave to another post. The bottom line is that I am terrified of fish and to the best of my knowledge, the feeling is mutual. This fear often complicates life since I have always held so dearly to the fact that a) I am outdoorsy type of person and b) I have always claimed to be a very tough minded character. So having to explain that I would rather fight a crocodile than a sunfish is a conversation I'd rather not have.

In high school, my best friend Brent decided he was going to cure me of my phobia. In the spring in a stream near where I lived, the carp would begin to swim the rivers to reach the place where they spawned. This was always an event for us, watching these small water ways fill up with big, ugly, dirty fish. This is what happens when there is not enough movie theatres in town. On one particular day as we watched the fish Brent had an epiphany, I'm sure from the devil, that I needed to be cured. Knowing me as well as he did, he knew the only thing more powerful inside of me than my fear of fish was my compassion for living things (again, not the manliest of traits). In a work of brilliance, Brent grabbed one of the carp and threw it on the shore. I watched in horror as this fish struggled for breath, trying to make its way back to the water that provided life. Brent then turned to me and said "if you don't do something, it will die". A decision was needed and fast if this fish were to live. I was forced to muster up every bit of strength I had to pick up the fish, place it in the water holding its tail until the water brushed past its gills renewing its breath. The fish snapped out of its comma type state and quickly swam away. As a result of this event, I am even more terrified of fish then I was to start.

I knew that something had to be done to save the fish. I knew that even though fish died on a daily occasion to feed many, it was wrong for it to die as an act of cruelty. A code of conduct had been impressed on my heart and I believe in the hearts of all; that although death may occur, at no time is it to occur as an act of cruelty. In the book of Amos God condemns Damascus for their extreme cruelty over those who they had concurred. Even in the midst of war, God has required us to show mercy. Although there are varying viewpoints as to the justification of war, there is one absolute that penetrates all perspectives. That in war as in all things in life, mercy is to rule. The moment when mercy is replace by cruelty is the same moment when we subject ourselves to the judgement from not only the God who loves, but the God who is love.

Rob