With the Right Bait

I was browsing my local paper and right in the middle of the classified section I spied this teaser:

With the right bait…you can catch anything!

Truth be told: what works in advertising works for devotions, too.

Grabbing the reader’s attention depends on a well baited hook. And a good fisher knows which hook and bait to use based on the fish they hope to catch.

I had a group critique several of my devotions and I quickly saw how different hooks and bait catch different fish.

One devotion likened our all-out enthusiasm for God to a baseball player stealing home. The women in the crowd swam right by, but the one man in the group felt like someone saw he was there and he took the bait to his soul’s delight.

As a pastor, I want a devotion that takes me to a deeper place, so hook me with the name of a noted theologian or even a definition from the original Bible language.

My husband doesn’t use worms when he fishes. He prefers leftover macaroni and cheese. He says the fish like it because it’s unusual, it grabs their attention, and it tastes good.

So who do you want to catch?

You can catch anything with right bait.