I went fishing last week out in the ocean with friends. It was a sunny day, and the ocean was relatively flat, and no one got seasick. We all caught sea bass and ling cod. It was a very enjoyable day. The guy standing next to me was catching way more fish than anyone else on the boat, so I paid attention to what he was doing and what he was using. It was the strangest lure I had ever seen, but it worked. So this week, I bought all the components of his weird lure and built eight of them. We are going out again this next week, and I expect to catch fish like crazy with my homemade weird lures.

I have done that a lot in my life, seeing somebody excelling at something I would like to excel at and mimicking them, either by doing precisely what they are doing or asking them for counsel on how to do what they are doing. I am not very subtle about my copycatting of their methods. I don’t care if they know that I am mimicking their process, and I try to thank them for the information.

About 40 years ago, I went to a men’s retreat with a group of guys from our church, and the speaker for the event was outstanding, the best teacher/preacher I had ever heard. During our break, I asked him if he had time to visit me for 30 minutes, and he made an appointment with me for the next day. I asked him if he could share with me how I could learn to preach as well as he did. He laughed and said, “You want me to do that in 30 minutes?” I said, “I will listen as long as you want to talk.” He talked to me for almost three hours, and I took pages of notes, writing as fast as I could.

For the last 40 years of preaching and teaching, I have followed the counsel I got that day very closely and passed it on to many other pastors as well. One of the interesting things he said to me after our crash course on preaching was that he traveled and spoke a lot, and I was the only one who had ever asked him for advice on preaching. It seemed so strange to me that someone as gifted as he was didn’t have a long line of people who wanted to learn from him.

Choosing to be a learner from another person outside the formal classroom setting is very pleasing to the Lord because He admonishes us to do that dozens of times in the book of Proverbs. I believe God blesses us in those situations by giving us a clearer understanding and working in and through the person we seek wisdom from. We all should constantly seek knowledge, understanding, and wisdom like gold, silver, and precious jewels. We might catch more fish if we did.