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Trout Fisherman in Hell

(Below is an excerpt from my next book, being crafted with love and blood even as you read this!)

There is an old story about a fisherman who believes he has died and gone Trout-fishing to Heaven as he catches one perfect 2 lb trout after another.  As he sets his fly and hooks into yet one more, he can’t fathom his good fortune.  The sky is blue, the weather ideal, the fish biting like he’s never before experienced, and everything is absolutely perfect.  It is not long, however, before the realization dawns on him that he is not in Heaven at all.  Instead, as the boredom and the pointlessness settle in on him, he realizes he’s actually in Hell.

It’s hard to describe just how hard this little parable hit me the first time I heard it.  In one moment it erased all my whiny complaints about how difficult and elusive success seems to be.  The trout fisherman in Hell story is so extreme, so seemingly ridiculous, that we are confronted with a strange and brutal fact: we may hate opposition and struggle, but it is critical for our mental health.  Without the struggle, we would feel no joy in victory. 

How can this be? How can it be true that we are actually happier and more fulfilled when overcoming opposition than when everything is easy and simply rolling our way? It is because of the way we were made.  Without a battle to win and an enemy to vanquish, the value of the warriar goes to zero.  In the famous words of Thomas Paine, “What we attain too cheaply we esteem too lightly.”  If we don’t earn it, we can’t enjoy it. 

This is profound, and it ought to provide a telling answer against all those dismal statistics that suggest that the "odds" of making it are too tall. If we consider only statistics most of us would never get out of bed in the morning, much less find a way to force ourselves to study for that upcoming calculus exam or next achievement in our career.  You see; it doesn’t matter how difficult success is or what the odds are of us “making it.”  What matters is our struggle against the opposition, the force of our will against the force of everything that would try and stop us.  Not only does it fulfill us to have something against which to push, but in the process it also makes us better.  It is the resistive weight that builds the muscles.  So ultimately, it doesn’t matter if success is hard or not, it simply matters that we pursue it anyway.

Sincerely,

Chris Brady

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22 responses to “Trout Fisherman in Hell”

  1. Jeff helm Avatar
    Jeff helm

    That’s so true Chris, thanks for sharing from the heart.

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  2. Cathy - Team Rascals of Rascal Nation Avatar
    Cathy – Team Rascals of Rascal Nation

    Chris,
    I never thought about struggle in the ways I am coming to now until I met people like you. Thank you for a change in perspective.

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  3. Eric Travis Avatar
    Eric Travis

    I could’t agree more. Of all they ears I’ve played sports or competed agains opposition, people or odds, my most precious memories are the ones where I had to work the hardest. Now that I think about it, the memories aren’t even all ones that end in my success. The trill of the hunt was what drove the passion and still does. Chris, thank you for sharing this post. It has reframed my whole situation into something much more thrilling and not so daunting. It actually turns so called negative motivation into a challenge to overcome. Really it’s a way to use complaints in a whole new way as well. My mind is buzzing with connections to this. This is exciting. Ok, got to go do something.
    Thanks again, cya
    Eric

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  4. Bryan Vashus Avatar
    Bryan Vashus

    This spoke to me; so much so I had to write a blog about it. Thank you, Chris.

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  5. Don Schultz, Team VIP Phalanx Avatar
    Don Schultz, Team VIP Phalanx

    Good thoughts Chris,
    I had lunch with my pastor today and we talked about Providence and how sometimes what we are experiencing in the present is painful but the thing to remember and to look for is how God will use what we’re experiencing for His glory and our benefit.
    Thanks for the “love and blood” being invested in our lives.

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  6. Shaun DeWitt Avatar
    Shaun DeWitt

    So the question I have to both you (Chris) and to Don Schultz is, Biblically speaking, do you think we’re to actively seek opposition to build ourselves stronger and allow God to build us through the challenges? OR do we go through life on cruise control like many pastors seem to teach and many Christians exhibit and when bad things happen to us we’re to sit by idly without complaining knowing that God is in control and therefore there’s nothing we can do about the situation anyway. On one hand I see the reality of the overcoming obstacles perspective. But could it simply be rooted in the sin of pride? Overcoming resistance and challenges feeds our ego and our self worth and so we want more challenges rather than giving God the glory alone for the results? My pastor says that our job is simply obedience, God’s responsibility is the results, referring to Isaiah’s mission in the Bible to preach the Word and that nobody will turn. ZERO results! Meaning that we shouldn’t be focused on trying to achieve a certain outcome but rather to focus on our activity in faithfully serving Christ with a right heart. One is positive and intentional, the other is more passive. I believe that nothing happens unless a PERSON, whether anointed by God or not, actively pushes against all amount of opposition to get something done and if he doesn’t have his eye on the destination he’s going to randomly end up somewhere he didn’t plan. But this is what many Christians call God’s guidance. We select a task to accomplish and don’t know the required amount of effort and action to achieve it so we give what WE think is required so when we’re off in the bushes somewhere or lying flat on our backs or end up in Canada instead of sunny Florida we give up and say “well this is God’s will so don’t push too hard to get back on track. I may be pushing against God to get this accomplished. He may have something greater for me to do in ice cold Canada.” This is the long standing difficulty of merging God’s sovereignty with our responsibility. A different pastor once told me that he thinks many of the problems Christians think are from God are only the result if their own stupidity…even applying it to himself. This definitely took longer and way more words than I planned on writing to get this thought out dang it. But anyway, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this since you’re going to seminary. Thanks for the brain food.

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  7. Aron, Band of Brothers Avatar
    Aron, Band of Brothers

    Chris,
    Timeliness of your entry is profound. As we look around our house, our neighborhood, and our nation, the struggles are very apparent. It will take “love” of those around us and our “blood” from the fight to change things. We master our craft in the struggle and for the last 12 yrs, you have been a great example for myself and my fellow brothers-in-arms. Thanks for pursuing success.
    Aron

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  8. Heidi Avatar
    Heidi

    Wow. We started school with that today and we were all speechless.

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  9. Chris Brady Avatar
    Chris Brady

    Shaun:
    Excellent question!
    I don’t believe that we should go out intentionally seeking obstacles so that we can grow through the resistance. I also don’t think that we are to sit back and try to be comfortable. We are, as your pastor says, supposed to be obedient to the calling of God on our lives. When we do so the Bible tells us over and over again that by being obedient to Him we can expect massive resistance. It is in realizing that in God’s perfect plan this struggle or difficulty, as we like to call it, is actually good for us. That is the shocker. This means that God has even arranged for those things that we term hard or unfair to be exactly what we need. Then, in struggling mightily against those obstacles for His glory, not ours, we can then point to His sufficiency in our lives, not our own strength, as the reason we made it through. In fact, the bigger the obstacles we mere sinful humans overcome, the more glory God gets for the victory.
    Therefore, we should not despair in hard times, but realize that nothing that comes to us does so without first going through God’s hands. And instead of focusing on the struggles or our lack of comfort, we can instead focus on how God sustains us unfailingly through it all. His glory should be our highest goal no matter what opposes us.

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  10. Randy Robson Avatar
    Randy Robson

    No pain, no gain! (dang it)

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  11. John Hayward Avatar
    John Hayward

    Excellent post! It makes me appreciate the struggles a little more even though they are daunting at times. It really helps me reframe the moment.
    Our path to victory, through struggles relies on our ability to improve and grow stronger. God allows us to grow and learn from our experiences thereby allowing us to achieve that victory.
    Our struggles make us stronger; I liken our growth through adversity to the parable of the butterfly in the cocoon (great CD). The Butterfly needs the resistance of the cocoon to strengthen its wings to allow it to fly. God leaves a path available to us to achieve our victories, but that path often requires a toll of change or growth before we can achieve it.
    The way to victory requires us to struggle first, the crucible of our struggles hones us to change and tempers us to strengthen allowing us to cut through that barrier to our goals. How many of us fail because we thought we weren’t supposed to push our way out of the cocoon?
    Keep Pushing!
    John Hayward
    Kaizen Delta

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  12. SJ Barakony Avatar
    SJ Barakony

    Excellent post – works right in w/ the critical ‘How to Think’ perspective that any self directed education is built around.
    As always, thank you for sharing!
    Does the new book as of yet have a title / sub-title, Chris? (remembering what you said about ‘Rascal’ and the challenge it was to name that book 😉

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  13. badger12 Avatar
    badger12

    Hey Chris,
    Great story! How often do I find myself complaining about the tough times, when the Bible says to “Rejoice” in the hard times. Wow! Yes, if everything was always a win, then life would be the boring “Hell” you stated in the fisherman story. It reminds me of “Groundhog Day” with Bill Murray. This “Life Journey” we are all on, is not “all about ME”, it is about learning from the hardships and encouraging others that they can make it in their “Life Journey”. Thanks, Barry G. (Atlanta)

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  14. Sherri Couey Avatar
    Sherri Couey

    Thanks for the insight. Never thought about it that way. You are absolutely correct. It is the anticipation that keeps you going forward.

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  15. Heather Mansel Avatar
    Heather Mansel

    Excellent piece!
    I have noticed WHAT we naturally “think” happiness looks like is often the opposite of how we shape it in our mind. There is an opposing battle of “wits”. The closer you get to “losing your wit” the smarter you get!
    The more “in tune” to God and his Word you notice that he works in opposition to our worldly thoughts and habits, but all along FOR us.
    His choice to offer FREE WILL-Y has led to our ongoing saga of a personal battle to first fight against spiritual self, and then the world, once the Spirit overcomes, the mind and educates us. We stop battling in our home “mental space” and begin cleaning up the fields we live within, with artful strategy, not a violent burst. We learn to respect the battle, even our “opponent” in HIS method because HE is still fighting FOR the opponent. LIFE is the objective; a catch and release if you will, vs. catch and devour.
    God never took the “easy way” of our being fish to his line in an easy catch. How could we expect easy when we are designed in HIS personal image, with HIS hardwired instinct and wisdom to be joy filled in a battle well fought?
    In Heaven, we will not be lazing by waters edge indefinitely. Maybe there will be ultimate fishing there and we will no longer feel like “fish out of water”!

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  16. Marsha Wiggins Avatar
    Marsha Wiggins

    Chris Thank You for being a fantastic teacher that is skilled in bringing thought provoking material, diced with humor and flavored with God. I aspire to be able to lead in such a manner.
    I realize that it is through struggle we grow & become victorious. I love the whole idea of embracing the difficult times. I am excited about your new book and can’t wait to read it.
    BTW-You gave a great talk the last time in St Louis and we are so looking forward to your next visit! Thanks for providing the food for growth.

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  17. CJ Calvert Avatar
    CJ Calvert

    Chris, great excerpt. Sadly, many North American’s can substitute the example of “fishing” with “watching television” and the empty reality of the Hell of mediocrity settles over them. I can’t wait to savor the finished book in my hands!

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  18. Kirk Birtles Avatar
    Kirk Birtles

    Chris… Thanks for the reminder of this great truth, as Thomas Paine said, ‘What we attain to cheaply, we esteem too lightly’. Refueled to be a ‘Force for good’….no matter what!!! BBNQ

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  19. Margaret Sanders Avatar
    Margaret Sanders

    Wow, that was great. I just moved out to Ohio for the summer where my husband & I are doing some door to door work. I meet people every day this story reminds me of. I am finally beginning to realize how to talk to them. But this would be a great story to give them. You have one of the brightest smiles I have ever seen. I once saw you in person and commented “are those teeth real? ” You said and turned away from me as if to say, how dare you insult me. But, what I should have said was, behind that perfect smile is someone so genuine and real, that it is refreshing to meet someone like you. Thank-you for all you do. We live in Utah, under Manasi, moved out to Ohio just for the summer. Ohio is green! The land of the motorized lawn mower. Is there life after lawn mowers?

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  20. Bob Pollock Avatar
    Bob Pollock

    Or as Chris and Orrin say, “Success lies on the other side of convenience.”
    Heck, that’s half the fun of building the LIFE business. We enjoy the battles and the stories of overcoming.
    What is the name of the new book and when does it come out?

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  21. Karleen Avatar
    Karleen

    I love this concept and I look forward to reading the book. Should I look for it under the same title as this post? Interestingly, I just listened to your LT audio “Master Your Craft” today (loved it!), which included an off-hand aside about being in heaven in our “resurrected bodies” and spending 1000 years exploring one topic. The 1000 years on a topic was mentioned half-jokingly, but it was the “resurrected bodies” part that really had me captivated. I had to pause the audio and reflect on this spiritually for several minutes. This, along with your book excerpt has me fascinated with your view of heaven and I hope you expand on this in your book. Thanks for sharing!

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  22. Mike Fredette Team Rhino Vermont Avatar
    Mike Fredette Team Rhino Vermont

    Thank you both for this conversation! It is revealing, educational, and supports all that I have been learning in my new 2 year reconnection to God through my local Christian Alliance church. I’ve even joined the praise team band to serve with what talents He has given me in order to further immerse myself into learning. I love this conversation and I appreciate both sides. Shaun’s questions and your answers. Very insightful.

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