Five of us went halibut fishing yesterday. When we got to the beach, all the tractors that back your boat into the surf were working, and we got launched with no problem. We motored out to my favorite spot; I have it marked on my GPS. It took us about 20 minutes. I threw the anchor overboard, but it wasn’t fastened to my rope, and I now had no anchor. The tide swings are so severe here in Cook Inlet that it is very difficult to fish without an anchor. We were right at the beginning of slack tide, so we decided to give it a shot. Slack tide is when the tide changes from going in or out. There is about a two-hour period with no ocean current, so the boat doesn’t drift. During that two-hour window, we caught 8 halibut, with several big ones. When the tide started moving, the fishing was over, and we headed back in. After we launched, I forgot to turn the lights off in our rig, and the battery was dead. But we were able to borrow some jumper cables, and a guy helped us get it started. We hooked up the boat, and we made it home in time for dinner. When we were raising our kids, camping was one of our main parenting tools, because anything that can go wrong does go wrong when you are camping, and then you teach your kids how to cope, solve problems, and choose to have a good attitude. Now my new saying is that when you are fishing, anything that can go wrong does go wrong. So now it is a matter of solving problems and choosing to have a good attitude. Life is a challenge and an adventure, so enjoy the experiences. 

We towed the boat to Ninilchik again today to go halibut fishing. When we got there, the ocean was smooth and flat, but three of the four skidders that they use to launch the boats from the shore into the surf were broken. When you get there with your boat, a very big John Deere tractor hooks up to your trailer and backs you and your boat down into the water, your boat comes off the trailer, and away you go. It is a great system, but the saltwater is hard on the tractors, and they break down. They have mechanics working constantly on them to keep them running. They did not want to launch us today because they had 20 boats out fishing, and they were afraid the last tractor would break, and they wouldn’t be able to get them out of the water. So we turned around and drove the hour back to the lodge. As I was turning into the driveway, a guy ran into the side of the truck, and we both went into the ditch. He was driving very fast and recklessly. When the police came, they gave him a ticket for reckless driving. An ambulance drove me to the hospital, where I spent the next 4 hours getting CT scans, X-rays, poked and prodded, and blood taken. Nothing was broken, no concussion, and no serious neck injury. Tonight, as I sit in my chair, I am very sore and expect to be even more sore tomorrow. My boat was not damaged, but Tim’s pick-up truck, which I was driving, was totaled. As bad as the day was, the worst thing is that I wasn’t able to go fishing today. This is the kind of day that you really need to work at rejoicing always, enjoy the wild ride, and attempt to be a good witness to everyone you talk to. 

Three of us towed my boat to Ninilchik, Alaska, to go halibut fishing today. It is an hour’s drive to get there. When we got there, the ocean was very choppy, and the wind was blowing pretty hard. We decided to skip fishing and drive back to the lodge. That was a disappointing decision because we were all looking forward to fishing. The ocean wasn’t so rough that there was any danger of swamping my boat. But it would have just been very uncomfortable and miserable bouncing around, trying to stand, and people getting seasick. My thinking process in these kinds of situations goes like this: I fish for fun, not because it is my duty, or I am under some obligation, and fishing in these conditions would not be fun. I, at times, choose to do things that are not easy or comfortable for the challenge, and the challenge makes it fun, but this wasn’t one of those kinds of situations. It would be like eating food that tastes terrible because it’s good for you. There is enough good-tasting food that is good for me to skip that choice. I choose to read my Bible every day, even though there are plenty of days that I don’t want to because I am tired or busy. The whole decision-making process is one I have thought about a lot, so I choose to do things or not to do things based on principles that come from wisdom. I make certain choices as I pursue fun and enjoyment, I make certain choices because it is the responsible thing to do, I make certain choices because it is good for me, I make certain choices because I believe it is God’s will for me, I make certain choices because it gives my wife joy, and I make choices because it will positively influence other people. I chose not to go fishing today, and I am feeling no guilt or remorse for that choice. Sometimes I make a decision in life, and afterward I wish I could undo it because, upon reflection, I know it was not the best choice. I write about that and try to gain wisdom for the next time a similar situation rolls around. 

I arrived in Soldotna, Alaska, on Monday and will be here for about three weeks fishing. I am at “Funny River Fellowship Lodge” with my friends Tim and George. Tim owns the lodge, and one of the blessings of my life is that I get to come up here each year with him and catch salmon and halibut until my arm falls off. The good fishing hasn’t started yet, so I have been working on my boat for the last couple of days, giving it a fresh coat of paint and making some improvements that will help with the fishing. I plan to take it out in Cook Inlet to fish for halibut. I think we will make our first trip out into the ocean tomorrow. I say “think” because we want to go out when the waves are not too big, and the wind isn’t blowing too hard. I have an app on my phone that tells me the weather, wave height, wind speed, and when high and low tides are, in the area where we want to fish. 

Wouldn’t it be cool if we had an app that told us which choices we made would lead to a storm in our lives, so we could avoid them by making alternate choices? Some storms we can’t avoid because they are God’s will for us. Like the storm that the disciples were in on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus brought it on to test them and developed their faith and trust in Him. It didn’t last very long, and then it was over, and what a cool experience that was. But many storms we can avoid if we have the wisdom to make decisions that result in success, stability, and smooth sailing. Wisdom is a great App to have in our lives. I pay $10 a year for my boating App, but wisdom is only available to those who seek it diligently. 

A simple life. What is that? A simple life focuses on what is important, not on stuff that has no lasting value. A simple life doesn’t mean we aren’t busy. Busy is good if we are busy with the right things. If we decide to have a garage sale, what do we put in it? Stuff we don’t need and stuff we don’t use. Once a year, we rent a ten-yard dumpster. What do we throw in it? Stuff we don’t need, stuff we don’t use, and stuff that has no value. It is amazing to me how we can keep filling one of those dumpsters full every year; it’s like junk has babies. What is true of material things is also true of activities.

We add activities to our lives more easily than we add junk to our lives. The worthless activities have a mysterious power to take over our lives and complicate them, making them anything but simple. Even more difficult to control than worthless stuff and activities that accomplish little is what we think about. Our brains have a very strong tendency to pick up thought patterns that are like bad movies; they’re not even good entertainment, they just eat up time. There are a lot of negatives about growing old, most of them physical, but a major plus is that I value my time more than I ever have. Because I am getting to the end of my life, I want what time I have left to count. I have much more wisdom now about which activities will bear the most fruit in my life. Don’t spend time doing things that don’t matter. Time spent with God, becoming more like Him in character matters. Time spent with family and friends, influencing them to seek God, matters. Time spent teaching the Bible matters. Time spent building His church matters. 

Friday, I attempted to summit Mt Adams. I was very confident that I would make it. I have been training by walking 5 miles close to once a week, then 10 miles monthly. It wasn’t enough because I only made it to the “Lunch Counter,” a spot on the mountain about 10,000 feet up. Adams is 12,207 feet, and the first part of the climb is the easiest. We started climbing at 4:30 am and reached the “Lunch Counter” about noon. By then, I was “cooked” and had just enough energy to make it back down. We got back down right at 4:00 pm, so we had been climbing for almost 12 hours, and I felt it.

The next day, every muscle in my body hurt, even my toes. I am going to attempt to submit Adams’ again next year. Even though I didn’t make it this year, I enjoyed the challenge and the experience of trying to reach the top. I am going to train harder next year than I did this year, and I am going back to the plan of climbing it in two days instead of one. Even with a lot of hard training, I don’t think I can climb much faster than I did this year. I have a year to think about my plan and to work on my cardio. I think I will make it next year. It is funny how a little time makes everything better. When I was sitting in the car Friday night, headed home after 12 hours of climbing, I was certain I would never do that again. I was too old, it hurt too much, it took too much time to get in shape, and I felt certain that if I attempted to climb to the top again, I would probably die. But then on Sunday afternoon, I started thinking about how much fun it was to exhaust myself to near death, how I actually did pretty well, and that I could really do it. 

In two days, I will attempt to climb Mt Adams. I am nervous about not reaching the top. I have failed to summit the last three times I have attempted to climb it. What is most irritating is that I used to climb it 4 to 6 times a year with no trouble at all. I have successfully climbed it over 30 times. Once, I climbed it twice in one day. Obviously, those days are long gone. I am in good shape right now, and I know that I can do it physically. The problem isn’t my legs; it is my brain. I know that when I get to the 10,000-foot level, my brain will come up with 10,000 reasons why I ought to quit and turn back. My brain can be very persuasive because it doesn’t like pain. The only way I am going to win this battle with my wimpy, lazy, self-centered brain is to anticipate the self-talk that is going to happen and determine not to let it control my life. I used to run marathons, and about mile 18, my brain would start screaming at me to quit because I was killing myself for no good reason. With marathon runners, it is called the wall. If you can run even one mile past the wall, you will finish. The key was anticipating the battle and being determined to win it. The same thing happens in many areas of life. Our brains talk us into taking the easy way out and quitting. Many are haphazard in their church attendance, their Bible reading, their prayer life, and in many other areas of personal responsibility. The way to win is to set a goal, meditate on accomplishing it, think about the grand feeling of succeeding, and anticipate our flesh’s reluctance to work hard, and meditate on conquering those thoughts.