We bought a crab pot 3 days ago. We put in the bait and, within minutes, pulled up about 10 crabs. We let them go. We then repeated the same thing. Every time we throw that pot in the water, crabs all but run to it, and we've baited it and caught about 60 crabs so far, but we keep throwing them back in. Actually, Wayne and I are looking forward to a good steamed crab. I want to pick the meat and make a seafood casserole or add it to an excellent gumbo. But...every time we get ready to harvest our crabs, the kids get all upset about killing them. They don't want to hurt the poor things....especially the ones who are obviously carrying roe. Now I agree with them there. Who could kill a mother and her young, right? But so many of them are just there to be eaten! There obviously are plenty of them if we have caught so many with so little effort.
It's amazing, actually, how little effort is involved. The pot smells like old fish, and the crabs just come running. I get the feeling that there might be something akin to this principle at work in my own life. It's funny in a way, but almost everywhere I go, people just walk up to me and start telling me the sad details of their lives. I'm not kidding. Total strangers have approached me in stores and told me about their divorces, their kids who are on drugs, their struggles with depression. I usually get in the car and tell my husband or my kids, "Well, it happened again." Or I'll call Jenny McN and let her know that, yep, I've still got it.
I started noticing this phenomenon about 14 years ago. Wayne and I were involved in a prayer walk that took 46 days to complete. We were deep in prayer with our teammates all day, every day. Every time we stopped somewhere, someone - usually a child - would come up to me and say interesting things. These things were very indicative of spiritual awareness. I was so surprised. From that moment on, people have walked up to me and spilled their anxieties. I've figured out that I'm just the crab pot, but the Holy Spirit is the bait. There are so many hungry people everywhere that I go. I don't have to say a word to them. They don't have to be in a church. All that happens is that I walk into a gasoline station, and they come to me. It seems strange. It seems unlikely, but the more that I think about it, isn't that what Jesus said? "But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." John 12:32
This phenomenon is, in fact, very likely. The world is hungry. It seems like there are plenty of places to get what a person needs, but if the hurting people out there never go in search of a Redeemer, how is He going to get to them? Through you. Through me. The truth is, people rarely search for the right things. They just search. It turns out that in my experience, what is really happening is that God is searching for them. Why else would I be in the most unlikely places on the planet when random strangers approach me and tell me deep and personal things? It has to be that the Spirit of God is at work in me. I could stop at any gas station in town. I could go to any grocery store I like. But for some reason or the other, sometimes I do things just a little bit differently, and then people come to me and reveal their hurt. At this point, I'm keen to what is happening. I pray with random strangers regularly now. I don't mind the awkwardness of supermarket stares. I'm so over that.
I bet that if we took that crab pot out of the water and sat it up on the dirt, the crabs would still find it as long as the bait stayed in it. They don't want the crab pot. They just want the food that's inside.
I hope that you'll keep the compelling "odor" of the Holy Spirit alive in your own heart. Begin to notice the random conversations that you have. Begin to follow those impulses that tell you to change up the routine a bit. God is always searching for those who need Him, and we are always the vehicle for a move of His redeeming presence! Don't be afraid to pray with people and to point them in the right direction. You're just the crab pot. The good stuff is God.
LOL!
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