An Unexpected Catch

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Hey everyone! Thank you for being you. I thought I would just tell you this week that you are cared about and watched out for; never forget that! Thanks for tuning in again, views have been sparse the past couple of weeks so tell your friends, if you tell a friend about this post and they actually view it, I will give you a shout out next blog if you put your name and your friend's name in the comment section.

This week's post is gonna be fun, I'm really excited for you to read it. The original concept came to me three days after Christmas in 2022. I would have been serving in Kingston and I think I had the inspiration after watching a fishing analogy video that our mission social media team put out. So, without further adieu, enjoy the full, published version (and look for the surprise I put in there)!

"An Unexpected Catch"

Aggressively, they hit the water.

Bygone nets of ancient slaughter.

Cast to-and-fro from dawn to dusk,

Dormant though, no sign of fuss.

"End it," said the captain low,

Fish wouldn't be their cargo tow.

Gloom hit the deck in dangerous plight,

Hidden by the periled night.

It was absurd: no thing to catch;

Just barren with an empty batch.

Killed with shame, the deckhands bowed,

Let darkness come and be their crowd.

Moreover, came a flipping fin

Now from the air, it flopped right in.

Outlandish shock and deep surprise

Portrayed the look from watchful eyes.

Quickly, came another fish,

Right over top, like granted wish.

"See there!" said one while pointing too,

Thousands more had joined the crew.

Unlike the nets, who failed to be,

Vaulting fish, was their new key.

With triumphant hearts and joyous cries,

"X" became their numberless prize.

You can often cast and find dismay,

but remember:

Zenith comes in God's way.

-Cale Kenneth Montoya

Oh boy, I can't wait to talk about this one! Did you find the surprise? Are you sure? Go back and look again before I reveal it! ......Okay, DRUMROLL PLEASE...... This poem is written in a format that follows complete alphabetical order, i.e. each line starts with the following alphabetical letter in sequence. Like the short story "The Book Seller" (from two weeks ago) where I challenged myself to produce a detailed short story with systematic themes in a 3 minute read, I gave myself an alphabet-limited structure challenge for this poem. It was so fun! I was worried about the "U," "V," "X," and "Z" sentences but I feel like I conquered that fear pretty well! What do you think?

Where was the "piece of Cale" in this content? Can you guess? Ever since I was a little kid, my Dad would take us kids fishing on some weekends and we had so much fun waking up early to gather worms and pick the best snacks from the store. He taught us how to reel the lure fast enough that it wouldn't sink and slow enough to trick the fish into thinking it was live bait. I love fishing! ...but not as much as him.

How about the theme? Did you "catch" it? (haha good one Cale) Fortunately, I gave you the theme at the very end of the poem, which by the way happens a lot in poetry. "You can often cast and find dismay, but remember: Zenith comes in God's way." These fisherman were trying their best to catch the fish by the means they knew how and yet, they couldn't catch a single thing! But sooner or later, fish started to just jump into their boat. This is a life lesson that sometimes answers come in ways that we least expect it一thus the title: "An Unexpected Catch." More specifically, sometimes we pray for something in our lives to go away, for example, but little do we know that God is using those things to shape our lives and give us leverage on future life situations. "Zenith comes in God's way."

So there you have it, answers will come一I can promise you that一but they often come in different ways; some even don't come for extensive periods of time! BUT THEY COME. Don't believe me? I can't wait to see the "outlandish shock and deep surprise" on your face.