One Catfish, Two Catfish, Three Catfish, Four. Oh My! Look at all the catfish swimming around. Look, there’s my tank. Look at the catfish swimming after me. Wait a minute, that tank over there, that catfish is me! Ok, what’s going on? I know each of those catfish in my tank chasing me. I know what they’re trying to do, but why am I a catfish in that other tank?
Isn’t that the way it usually is? We can list all the “catfish” chasing us and how they are abusing/persecuting us. But when we discover we are the catfish, we’re completely at a loss as to why. We have no problem seeing the splinter in someone else’s eye, but when it comes to our eye, we don’t even notice it.
We all know that trials and tribulations will come our way. Not just because we are Christians, but because that’s life. Although as Christians, we can add persecution to our list of trials and tribulations. John 15:20 says, If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
But we know from the Bible that the trials and tribulations that come our way are the Lord’s refining fire doing a work in our life. But he knows where I am going. And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold. Job 23:10
I have refined you, but not as silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering. Isaiah 48:10.
It’s one thing to have a catfish in your tank. It’s quite another to be the catfish in someone else’s tank. Self-examination is tough, but David set the example in Psalm 139:23-24. Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
As Christians, may we embrace the catfish God puts in our lives; and as Christians, may we strive not to be the catfish in the lives of other Christians.
Life as a Persecuted Christian in North Korea – Bae’s story