Self Defense for the Soul

Jeri has an interesting post on self defense today, talking about how important it is to understand our weapons:

When I teach martial arts to women, I always tell them that self defense begins with the chin. Put your chin down. Most people, when frightened, lift their chins. It's an unconscious indication of preparing to run away. Even when an opponent is being defiant and "talking trash," that chin gives him or her away...

So in a sense, even a chin is a weapon. It can betray you in a fight, or it can warn your opponent that you are mentally prepared for real combat. If you have a sword in your hands, but your chin is lifted and your voice is high and taut, a skilled opponent knows that you are not master of your sword. He can defeat your sword with his sword. Or, worse, he can make your own sword defeat you.

A good weapon, held in the hands of a person who does not know how to use it, can be as deadly to that person as anything the enemy brings to the circle of combat.

That last line really caught my interest, especially because of where she went next. Jeri pointed out that as followers of Christ, many of us have no clue about our spiritual armor, self-defense for the soul. And we lift our chins and betray our hand by the weapons we choose - we underestimate the power of prayer and trust, and we rely on poor substitutes instead: numbers, popularity, politics, and...

Morality - Now we come to the most deceptive false weapon of all. It just looks so much like the real thing...

Morality is the weapon of glass, for we do not possess moral goodness ourselves, and so in the battle, if we use this weapon to hammer the other side, we find ourselves holding shards. The only thing we can bring to mankind is salvation in Christ. We are the salt of the earth, not because we boycott or rail or shun, but because we are forgiven, we believe, we confess our sins, we find restoration in Christ.

But the material that makes a bad sword is material for an excellent mirror...

Good stuff. She has nailed it! Click here to read the whole thing...

Sex, Death, and Fundamentalism

Over at Reformation21, one of our very own Westminster profs, Carl Trueman (lover of large SUVs and small homeless kittens), is asking a rather penetrating question: Is Fundamentalism The New Sex? Here's how he begins...

Victorian society was marked by one great obsession and one great taboo. The obsession was, of course, death. It's everywhere. From music to painting to architecture, the Victorian era was indelibly marked by the charnel house and the crypt. As for sex – forget it; or, at least, don't mention it in polite company. My own great-grandmother was only told the facts of life the night before she married (she was a little taken aback, so I am told); and years later, in talking to my grandfather, it emerged that she didn't even know how to pronounce the word 'sex,' preferring to speak in terms of 'seck.'

Given this, it is arguable that the modern Western world represents the very antithesis of the Victorian era. The great obsession now is sex; and the great taboo is death. While sex is everywhere in abundance, even on advertisements for fast food and dental floss, death is conspicuous only by its complete absence, except for the odd movie where it is generally reserved for absurd cartoon villains or evil geniuses whose moral depravity is indicated by their English accents and who therefore deserve to die horrible deaths anyway.

So how does this relate to fundamentalism? Well, you really need to read the article (it's quick) to see how Carl connects the dots. Since I don't want to let the cat out of the bag, I'll conclude simply by saying that I think he makes some excellent insights and conclusions. But what about you - what do you think? Feel free to give it a read and then offer up your opinion...

Hat tip: Justin Taylor

Room With A View

Just in case you don't follow my Granitepeaks postings, you may be interested in seeing where we went this weekend. While your at it, you might want to peek into my brother's mind, and get his two bits as well. It might shed some light on why we see life a little differently...

Dealing With Lust - The Rest of The Story

There's been some interesting dialogue in our conversation about lust, and the discussion keeps returning to a common theme: what do we need to do to actually experience change? I shared a real life example of a friend (I'm calling him Steve), and then I invited folks to offer their suggestions:

Steve is happily married to a godly wife, he loves her, they have great sex, etc. The only problem is, Steve also finds himself attracted to another woman - a common friend they both know. He takes Mt 5 seriously, he wants to stop feeling this way, he prays, he tries to overcome his desires, etc...but it just gets worse - to the point where he's gone all the way in his mind.

I'm not making this up - this is real, this is the reality of sexual desire. And it's strong. Now you tell me: what does Steve need to know or do to experience change in his heart? Where does the rubber really meet the road?

So that's the heat. And now I get to tell you the rest of the story.

In the face of this pressure, my friend Steve did something crazy. He decided he loved his wife too much to keep deceiving her about what was going on inside. So he confessed - he told her about his desires for this other woman. He told her everything. He held nothing back. And her response was amazing.

She didn't get angry. She didn't lash out. She didn't tell him never to speak to this woman again. She didn't say 'try harder'. She didn't say that he better 'fix it or else'...

Instead, she said, "Steve, I love you, I forgive you, and I am with you - you have to learn how to overcome these desires, and I am going to stand beside you and help you do that, because you are my husband, and I am committed to you."

In other words, she didn't say "I will love you because you are faithful, because you are sensitive, because you a good provider, a good leader, a good lover." She didn't say "I will love you because you get it right" (performance). Instead she said "I will love you because you are my husband (relationship). I will love you because of who you are."

Wow. How would you like a wife like that? Can you imagine being a wife like that?

Listen, this is precisely how God deals with us in the gospel - he loves us, and is with us, because of who we are in Christ: sons, not slaves (cf. Gal 4:7). If God's favor is based on what Christ has already done, then nothing you can do - not your greatest triumph, not your worst defeat - nothing can change the way he feels about you.

He loves you because of who you are in Christ.

And recognizing that reality is tremendously liberating. It frees us from our bondage.

Steve told me, "You have no idea how this affected me! When my wife responded to me this way, my heart melted! I was guilty, and instead of the judgment and condemnation which I deserved, she loved me in spite of myself, she gave me grace!"

Real grace rightly seen decimates our desires for sin. When Steve saw clearly the nature and extent of his wife's love for him (because of her commitment to him, not his own fidelity to her), it changed his heart, it tamed his lust. On a scale of 1-10, his desire for this other woman plummeted from an 8 or 9 down to a 1 or a 2.

Why? Because seeing his wife's love for him rejuvenated his own love for her; recognizing why she loved him (relationship, not performance) changed the affections of his heart. His desires for this other woman were revealed for what they were - infatuated titillation, cotton candy for the glands. He finally saw clearly just how much he already had, and it far surpassed the cheap thrills of his own imagination.

What I'm saying in all this is that we don't conquer our lust merely by trying harder (although a heart set free by love most certainly will try hard) - rather, we conquer our lust by learning to love something better, by realizing how it is that Christ loves us. We conquer our lust by seeing the grace of the gospel. That's where the desire to obey actually comes from.

That's why Rom 6:14 says "Sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace." That's why Jesus said "the truth will set you free" (Jn 8:32). That's what you and I need, and that's what Jesus Christ offers.

Please Pray

For those of you who have been following Ryan and Rachel's story, today is the day little Joshua will enter this world, and in all likelihood leave it as well.

Please pray for the Sutherland family as Rachel is scheduled to be induced this morning. We believe in a God who is powerful enough to heal and to save, who loves us as his children, who is gracious and merciful, who delights in our requests and comforts us in our sorrows, and who is wise enough to lead us precisely where we need to go in our journey towards a better place.

So we trust in this God, and we ask him to be with our friends - for Ryan and Rachel as they go through this very difficult time, for their little boy Bridger who is too young to understand very much yet can surely tell that something is amis, and especially for baby Joshua who can do nothing but rest in his Creator's wisdom and love.

Pray that all four of them may know God's grace in an amazing way today...

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed...
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities,
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him...

As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field;
for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.
But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting
on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children.

-from Psalm 103

Please pray to this God for our friends today.

Old School Horsepower

I for one, find this kind of cool:

Horse-and-plow farming making a gradual comeback, advocates say... By working hard, a farmer with horses can earn triple or more the earnings per acre than one farmed by agribusiness.

That seems kind of hard to believe, but there's part of me that sure hopes it's true. I'm beginning to get tired of technology, and wouldn't mind giving up some of our new fangled features for a more old fashioned pace. Of course, that sentiment is still far from mainstream, but it'll be interesting to keep an eye on things...

Why Did Jesus Have To Rise (Part 2)

This past Sunday I preached the second of a two part sermon series on why Jesus had to rise (Eph 2:1-10). If you'd like to listen to it, it's available online here.

As always, comments and feedback are welcome...

Wonders Never Cease

From the "Very Cool Pictures of the Sky" department, I'd like to point you towards some pictures of Mammatus clouds, by Jorn Olsen. God's diversity and creativity continue to amaze me - science constantly tries to reduce the amazing to the predictable, and yet we are everywhere surrounded by evidence to the contrary; creation never ceases to astound because it never ceases to surprise. So click the link and enjoy the show...
(Hat tip: Wayne)

Sunday Evening Splendor

Golden sunshine late Sunday afternoon,
dancing through aspens in flickering glow,
settling in pools of yellows and green,
purples so resplendant my tongue tastes merlot.
How do we explain, such beauty often missed?
God's delight and glory; my wonder, awe, and bliss.

Tom Hanks, Space and Faith

Actor/director/producer Tom Hanks recently co-produced an IMAX film called Magnificent Desolation, which uses NASA footage and gives people a 3D experience of walking on the moon. Reader's Digest published an interview with Hanks about his fascination with outer space (remember Apollo 13?), and I thought one of his comments was particularly interesting.

RD asked, "When you contemplate space, does the complexity, the magnificence, make you think there's some divine hand in this, or that it's all random?"

Hanks replied (emphases mine):

Either one is a tremendous leap of faith, and it could very well be that this is beyond our consciousness. How can you look at it and say this was plotted out on a graph? I think that would cheapen it somehow. At the same time, to say it just happened and is completely random would cheapen it as well. I'm thoroughly delighted by the mystery of it all.

What Hanks has right is what many atheists/agnostics miss: that to believe in the theory of evolution is just as much an act of faith as believing that God created the world. What Hanks has wrong, though, is that believing that God created the world (by a word, no less) somehow cheapens the magnificence of creation. Rather, it exalts the God who created the earth and everything in it. After all, the heavens themselves proclaim God's handiwork (Psalm 19), specifically his invisible power and divine nature (Romans 1:20). In the most incomprehensible way, God remains completely beyond our consciousness AND he has revealed himself to us, including the creation of the galaxies we explore.

The world that our God of wonders has made is truly amazing. Like Hanks, I am also thoroughly delighted by the mystery of it all; I just get to be even more delighted by knowing the One who made it and who also made and cares for me!

Dealing With Lust

Something interesting has happened this week. A number of bloggers have suddenly noticed that pagans don't have a monopoly on lust - many of us Christians are just as guilty.

Let me give you some examples. A blogger named David Bayly has recognized that stat counters have turned many of us bloggers into statistics-addicted influence seekers. Marla over at Intellectuelle has noticed that a lot of Christians dress like tramps.

Both of these posts do an excellent job of exposing ways we lust for things we do not have. We are sluts, harlots, whores - in heart if not in deed. And if the ensuing discussions are any indication, the problems they unearth seem to resonate with many.

What I find fascinating in all this is not the fact that so many of us struggle in these areas; what is interesting to me is how people respond to these struggles.

Almost without exception (you'll have to read the articles yourself if you want to fact check me on this), all of the advice and comments generated in these discussions seems to center on coping strategies: Find yourself craving more hits on your blog? Try turning off your stats counters, try "fasting" from posting. Find yourself looking at all that cleavage in church? Women, you need to dress differently; men, you need to try not to be around them, and if you must, then stare at the ceiling. Got a problem? Try this, try that...

Now listen - I'm not suggesting that we don't need to be serious in our efforts to combat our desires. Scripture is practical and we should be too. It just strikes me as interesting that almost no one is talking about how to eliminate the underlying desires. Almost no one is talking about where those lusts come from.

Wouldn't it be best if I didn't crave the attention and influence that blogging seems to promise? Wouldn't it be better if a woman in a bikini didn't even register on my radar because I am so in love with my own wife? Wouldn't it be best if I could actually overcome my lust altogether, rather than merely trying to control the sinful behavior that results from it?

How come no one's talking about how to change the heart? Hmmm?

(I have some suggestions, but I think I'll let you ponder the question for a while first).

good competition?

let me tell you something about me that you may not know, i love competition. i'm speaking specifically here about athletic competition. i love being the guy with the ball with time running out and down by two or up to bat with 2-out in the bottom of the 9th and our team needing a run. i love to play sports and have always loved to watch a close game.

all my life i've heard how good sports are for my personal development. "healthy competition is such a good thing" they say. "you learn so much about life through sports."

then i had a child.

a child who at almost 2 years old is showing signs of athleticism. now i'm starting to evaluate these statements. are these statements and others like it true? is there any such thing as "healthy competition"? i'm beginning to wonder what that word even means any more. a member of my church softball team recently sent this email out to the whole team:

Most teams I have played with from 1978 on would bury an opposing player for making an error, striking out or any other gaf. Any potential for taking a thin skinned player out of his game and into his head was considered good hard nosed baseball and a tribute to a hard working group of bench jocks who looked for any edge they could get. If you didn't like it you could go play coed high arc.

The team I play with in the hispanic league in Vineland hits anywhere from 3-7 home runs a game on average and after every home run the whole team lines the third base line and high fives the runners coming home after which - it gets worse - they all get in a huddle and with a rising drawn out scream 15 voices yell "BOMBA" (Bomb in English). We all fall over laughing, the fifty fans cheer, the ump shakes his head trying to hide his laughter and the other team makes faces and threats. It angers some of the other players but also strikes fear and teams know that if they don't bring their "A" game every play we will bury them on every little mistake they make every chance we get. The cheer goes on whether we are up five-one or down five-one, regardless, look out 'cause we're coming after you.

And at the end of every year we get calls from half the players in the league begging us to give them a shot at playing on our team. Every year the other teams recruit heavily, all with the same intention - to beat us or the 1 or 2 other teams that are solid beasts who will bury you unmercilessly on any given chance. Killer instinct - talk about an edge.

i don't know about you, but i was a bit taken aback when i first read the email. in order not to take this individual's email out of context, he was trying to get our team motivated for the playoffs because we have been accused of being soft. but the scene he is describing is sort of a disgrace to the sport if you ask me. i would have been ashamed to be a fan at those games and there's no way i would have let my son watch me be a part of humiliating the other team.

so what is healthy competition? i think sports should be about physical health, sportsmanship and fun. i think it should instill hard work and learning to work as a team towards a common goal. winning is secondary, but it has become primary. i also think we need to have a healthy view towards professional sports where winning actually means something and these leagues that mean nothing.

i'd really love some feedback about this issue. what message should we be sending our kids? should we allow sports to dominate out family life? at the same time, sports are fun and important for physical and to a large degree mental development. but they can also be a detriment to mental development. how do we find a healthy balance? more importantly, how do we redeem a good thing in our culture that is clearly gone awry?

Why Did Jesus Have To Rise (Part 1)

So why DID Jesus have to rise? (Jn 20:9) Yesterday I had the privilege of preaching (part 1) on that very question here at my home church here in Billings, Montana. If you'd like to listen to it, it's available online here.

Part 2 happens this coming Sunday (these sermons are part of the reason why I haven't been posting much lately - life's been busy the past couple of weeks!). If anyone has any comments, feedback, suggestions please feel free to share; like most aspiring pastors, I need all the input I can get...

[Admin note: the link was broken yesterday; should be fixed now]

Does Saddleback Really Suck?

I'm generally leery of mega-church icons like Rick Warren at Saddleback church, but I saw something today which actually impresses me greatly (assuming its true):

Saddleback is unique in that 78 percent of the members of our church had no religious background prior to joining the church. It is a church of conversion growth. We've baptized about 14,000 adults in the last eight years. So that means this is not a church that grew at the expense of other churches.

That statistic is extremely significant, and definitely commendable. As Reformed folks, I think we sometimes get a bee in our bonnet and assume that if someone's theology is not "as correct as ours," then there's no way God's Spirit could possibly be working there. So we run around taking great pride in our theological accumen, even though we see very little conversion of unbelievers in our own churches.

At the end of the day, it's not our theology that saves us - it's faith in the resurrected Christ. Of course sound theology is vital for growing and maturing in our faith - many of those Saddleback converts will probably end up in other churches down the road. But we need to be very cautious about blasting those who are less "enlightened" than we are, especially when we see real evidence of the Holy Spirit working via conversion.

Just a little call for humility to start the week...

(Hat tip: Adrian Warnock)

All a Matter of Perspective

This letter ran in a Phoenix newspaper recently:

A wake-up call from Luke's jets

"Question of the day for Luke Air Force Base: Whom do we thank for the morning air show?

Last Wednesday, at precisely 9:11 a.m., a tight formation of four F-16 jets made a low pass over Arrowhead Mall, continuing west over Bell Road at approximately 500 feet. Imagine our good fortune!

Do the Tom Cruise-wannabes feel we need this wake-up call, or were they trying to impress the cashiers at Mervyns' early-bird special?

Any response would be appreciated."

Want to see the response? (Yes, you really do!) Well then, you're going to have to click here for the rest of the story...

I think this illustrates how easy it is to jump to conclusions, how important it is to try and actually get the facts before we open our mouths and spout our opinions. It's amazing what a little perspective will do for the situation...

Hat Tip: Anne over at Palm Tree Pundit

no such thing as an open mind

i've been utilizing a feature on google lately called the google alert. if you haven't yet tried this you should check it out. essentially it is a search engine that searches key words for you daily and then alerts you by email of its findings. i have been using it to search key words and phrases in websites and newspapers that pertain to missoula.

the other day it pointed me to the website of the montana freethinkers. the website is pretty interesting where a few people are posting thoughts on religion and philosophy and other topics. on the menu bar, however, is a list of several religions including "ex-christian."

i am about to go on a bit of a rant, which i normally don't do, but this website has a good bit of discussion about christianity. some of it i agree with and most of it i don't, but the insulting thing is that there is not a christian point-of-view. if we would have posted all about mormonism and what is wrong with it here at sld, we would have been hammered. in fact, i think we have shown about as open a mind as is possible towards the mormon position or any other position for that matter. we don't necessarily agree with all the comments left here from these various viewpoints, but we allow people to share their views. and, i know i speak for my fellow authors here that we genuinely want to know how others see the world, even if we don't agree with them.

what i am ranting about is that christians are always critiqued for being closed-minded. i don't disagree with the critique entirely, but i do disagree with this label coming from people who get to define what open-mindedness is in the first place...not to mention they label everyone who doesn't agree with them as closed-minded. doesn't their exclusion of anyone make them closed-minded as well?

i am not here to blast the montana freethinkers...i rather like a lot of what they are writing because it represents the opinions of a broad group of people (who are seeking spiritual things) about christianity and the church. many of their critiques should not be aimed at christianity, however, but at the church itself...but that is a whole other blog. what i am trying to say in this post is that there is no such thing as an open-mind. what would be the fun in the world if everyone had a so-called open mind? there would be no disagreement, no ethics, no debate, and no diversity.

everyone has some sort of value that they hold to that makes them right and others wrong and a certian value makes a person closed to a different value they don't agree with. people who don't believe in god think that christians are closed-minded (and they may be right in some respects) but atheists are also closed-minded because they are not open to the christian message.

but here's the rub. people are sinners and therefore will never be right about everything they believe in this life. john calvin said, "at best a man's theology is only 70% correct." calvin was one of the greatest theologians of all time and he said, "at best." therefore we need to realize that because of sin and the fact that we are human, we can't know or be right about everything. therefore, we need to have a certain amount of openness about things that we really need to be willing to change on. but we also need to be closed to things that are not in line with what is dogmatic truth. for christians we can be open about everything except what is written in the bible.

but what about you? what is your standard that keeps you from being open to the wrong things? everyone wants to be open-minded. but only a correctly closed mind can be open to what is actually true.

What Death Looks Like

Nearly a year ago, Marla Swoffer wrote an excellent piece on what it's like to watch someone die:

As that last evening drew nigh, I found myself begging God to take him. The fluid amassing in his body had filled his lungs and he sounded like a human coffee pot. The nurses reassured us that he was not in pain. They said it was the natural sounds of the body's shutting down process. But it was totally unnatural to me that anyone should be in this transitory state of existence. No matter how cruel my stepfather had been to me, and how much I wanted him to die so that my mom could be free from his control, I didn't want him to die like this.

Then today, she offers some further reflections on the anniversary of this event:

Everything I am is affected by the life and death of this man, but all of me is being transformed by the life and death of another man--Jesus Christ--who unlike the first man, didn't set himself up to be god, but who actually was and is God.

I'd encourage you to read both articles carefully. Marla has learned some valuable lessons that I think we can all benefit from, and I found myself seeing a lot of overlap with the sermon I'm working on for this coming Sunday: "Why Did Jesus Have to Rise?" (Jn. 20).

If we view the work of Christ simply as 'atonement' – something that happened in X's death, something that just gets us into the kingdom – we end up with a message that is not real relevant to unbelievers (because most of them aren't interested in abstract concepts like 'sin' and 'righteousness'), or to believers either (because after all we're already in the camp).

If we take a shallow view of Christ's work, as simply something that happened on the cross, that means most of our own life work will be up to us. Work hard, try to get ahead, try to change ourselves, try to find happiness and fulfillment. Try, try, try. Is it any wonder that so many Christians live lives that are virtually indistinguishable from those of unbelievers?

Almost all of us are self-centered, we are interested in what benefits us, we want LIFE! And that's a big part of the reason why Jesus had to live: our life can only come through his life, his living. We need to see Christ's work, to see the Gospel, as a message of life - Christ lives and is actively intervening in our lives in order to make us live too. So yes Jesus did need to die, but even more importantly, he also needed to rise, to live.

It's nice to see Marla looking death in the face (both her stepfather's and Christ's) and making those connections back to life...

The Gospel

The Gospel is Jesus Christ crucified and raised. This is a quote by John Calvin, from class notes that I've been reading:

"It is Christ whom we proclaim, clothed in garments of his Gospel, in response to which all men are commanded to repent and believe in Jesus Christ."

My Daily Bread

"Give us this day our daily bread," Christ teaches us to pray in Matthew 6. And earlier in the book, our Lord tells us that "man does not live by bread alone" (Matt. 4:4, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3). Somehow while reflecting on these two verses earlier this week, I realized that I had been spiritually starving myself recently.

How, you ask, have I been spiritually starving myself? It was really very simple: I was not feeding myself, even though I had ample food -- and good food -- available. It wasn't a case of hunger strike; it was more a case of neglect. A silly way to starve myself, for sure: I am like a beggar who sits in front of a king's feast and finds myself more interested in the cockroaches who are fighting beneath the table.

Upon leaving Philadelphia, I left more than humidity and traffic behind. I also left a community that was so saturated with grace that I was seeing and hearing the Gospel almost every time I turned around. To return to my food analogy, it was like a continual buffet of delicious and nutritious food, so that eating healthy was never a burden and I certainly didn't need to take any vitamins.

This isn't to say that my friends in Philadelphia weren't sinners or there weren't challenges while I was in school; nor is it to say that the Gospel isn't working powerfully in the people I encounter every day in Montana. In fact, just the opposite is true. But somehow I fell into a rut (however briefly) of neglecting God's Word, of not getting ample portions of my daily bread in order to sustain me as I face the challenges of beginning a new life.

One of the blessings that I see in my life now - not just for this week but for the long haul in my Christian life - is the very thing that sustained me in Philadelphia is what must help me in Montana, and that is the Christian community. There is no such thing as a lone ranger Christian -- just like one person doesn't produce all of his own food, we have to learn to rely on each other for our "dietary supplements." God's Word must be primary in our lives, but our fellow pilgrims are the ones who will help us put it in its proper place.

I praise God for the fellowship of my Christian brothers and sisters who (knowingly or unknowingly) offer me food for my soul. And I also praise God that he has helped me to see that I need to be intentional about getting my daily bread and finding people with whom I can feast together on the riches of God's grace.

Catfish the size of a Grizzly Bear

How's this for a catch: at 646 pounds, this giant 9-foot catfish from the Mekong River in Thailand is not only the largest freshwater fish ever caught, it's about the size of an adult male grizzly bear. You can more read about the fish here and here.

I found it funny that while "environmentalists and officials negotiated for its release to allow it to spawn" (guys, a fish this size has been spawning for a LONG time already!), the fish "died and was eaten by the fisherman" (which is WHY they were fishing! They were HUNGRY!!!). I wonder how many people a fish that size would feed?