“And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19). When someone has gone fishing and gets frustrated that they haven't caught anything, a common reminder that is often uttered is, “There's a reason it's called fishing and not catching.” Not every attempt at fishing ends in a catch. Most, in fact, do not. There are definitely things that you can do to increase your odds of catching a fish - better bait, a better patch of water, a particular time of day when the fish are more active - but at the end of the day you're blindly casting a line or net into the water and hoping for the best. “It's called fishing, not catching” may seem like rubbing salt into a wound to someone who is running thin on hope and thinner on patience. But for those of us who remember that fishing is not really about catching fish, but rather is about laying ourselves bare to the world, with naked hope that the water will provide of its bounty, despite however many dozens or hundreds of times that we have reeled in our lines or hauled up our nets with nothing to show for it, then even if we end the day with no catch at all, we will not consider the day wasted. The Savior invites each of us to be fishers of men. Not catchers of men, but fishers. Fishers of men share their testimony not with the expectation that their friends and neighbors and colleagues will immediately be baptized after hearing their words. They share their testimony because they have hope. Again and again fishers of men share and invite and serve, hoping that their efforts are not wasted, but never discouraged when after days or weeks of fishing they seem to have made no catch at all. It's about fishing. It's about being there on the water, where the fish are, and throwing the nets down over and over, always hoping, never despairing. If we have tried in the past to share our testimonies and be a fisher of men and our efforts did not lead to an amazing conversion story, I hope we can try again. It's not about the catching. As long as we are doing our part as fishers of men and casting our nets as far and as wide as we can, the Lord will take care of the rest. And maybe one of these days, we will cast in our net and we will catch so many fish that the nets will start to break and the ship will start to sink from the weight of it. But in the meantime, let's just keep fishing and not worry so much about the catching.
