A Fish Out of Water: a parable of modern life

Many years ago in a secret laboratory in the Northwest part of Oregon several scientists undertook a very bazaar experiment. The decided to create a fish that could live out of the water. They began by taking some healthy red herring, and then they bread, and cross – bread these fish. Then they adjusted and re-adjusted the very chromosomes of the fish till they had a fish that could live out of the water.

The project director was not satisfied however. He was sure that deep down the little fish still had a desire to live in the water, so he said, “Re-educate it, change its very desires!” They worked day and night until finally they had achieved their goal. They had created a fish that would rather die than get wet. Even the slightest increase in humidity would fill this little herring with dread. The director of this project was proud of their accomplishments, so he took their new air breathing fish out on tour.

While they were on tour something horrible happened. The reports said that it was an accident, but there were many who didn’t think it was an accident at all. According to the reports, what happened was that during a demonstration in Seattle the fish was accidentally dropped into the Sound. Of course this sent the little fish into a state of panic. It closed its eyes, clamped its gills shut, and sank straight to the bottom. As it lay there hoping that someone would rescue it from its watery prison, its eyes starting to bulge from lack of oxygen the little fish knew that it must breath or die, and even though everything in it hated the idea it took a small gill full of water. Then it took another, and another, and another until it was breathing as its body filled with oxygen it flipped its tail and glided effortlessly through the water. What a feeling! There was such joy and enthusiasm the little fish had never experienced anything like this. It felt like, like, it was home. That was the last anyone ever saw of the little red herring…


1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice-- the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? 2 Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is. Rom 12:1-2 (NLT)

Like the little fish we were created to exist in an environment created just for us, a world surrounded by God’s love and grace. However, there’s a project director (satan) that has been trying for a long time to reprogram each of us to believe that we were not designed to experience God at all, and if we do that we should be afraid of Him. The truth is that God wants each of us to experience the freedom and joy of living as we have been created to live. Living as His beloved children!

In closing, are you living your life like a fish out of water, or are you living the way God created you to live?

Pressing On:
Dale Phipps