Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Fish Out Of Water

walkingcatfishhouse

There is a fish. Called a catfish. A walking catfish. A weird name, you might say. Well, yeah. Is it a cat or a fish? And walking…??

Truth be told, named a CATfish simply because of the long, whisker-like barbs protruding from its jaws, this fish is indeed a fish and as such requires an aquatic environment to survive, but it is capable, when the necessity arises, of breathing out of water and travelling across land to get to a place of lower population density… but wait, let me leave it to Wikipedia to give you the precise details:

“The walking catfish, Clarias batrachus, is a species of freshwater air-breathing catfish found primarily in Southeast Asia, so named for its ability to “walk” across dry land, to find food or suitable environments. While it does not truly walk as most bipeds or quadrupeds do, it has the ability to use its pectoral fins to keep it upright as it makes a sort of wiggling motion with snakelike movements. It can survive using this form of locomotion as long as it stays moist. This fish normally lives in slow moving and often stagnant waters in ponds, swamps, streams and rivers (Mekong and Chao Phraya basins), flooded rice paddies or temporary pools which may dry up. When this happens, its “walking” skill comes in handy for moving to other sources of water.”

Quite a scenario. Here we have this “fish out of water”, but surviving very well, thank you…  for a time… and actually its time of relative discomfort is beneficial to its survival, allowing it to move to environments more favourable for survival! Something like: “That which does not kill you outright serves to make you stronger”!

How often have you felt like a catfish? Totally out of water. Not living out your purpose yet struggling in every way possible to get somewhere… and almost giving up until suddenly you see a pool ahead! New possibilities! Renewed dreams! New opportunities! New perceptions…?

I have come to believe that sometimes we need to go through these times, to be a fish out of water, so that we can reach the full potential that God wants us to reach. What appears to some to be a huge mistake, is often really a vehicle to learn skills and hone abilities that would not have been possible in our “natural” environment…

They are not easy times, and mostly we do not wish them on anyone else, yet we are grateful for their being, because without them we would stay in that stagnant pool where we were before we started “walking” and end up dead when it dries out and get’s too small for us!

Not a pretty picture… even less pretty than a fish out of water, wiggling its way to more abundant waters.

Shalom!

Walking Catfish 2