| Outdoor Truths: Aiming Outdoorsmen Toward Christ April 14th |
Gary Miller ~ outdoortruths.org
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It seems that when Brent and I get together, there’s always a story to tell. I can remember on one turkey hunt where we happened to come up on a hen and a gobbler. The hen went in one direction as the gobbler began in the other. I knew that tom would want to rejoin his girlfriend so he stopped and so did I. When he realized that I was waiting on him, he took flight, so I shot him out of the air. We still laugh over that unique experience. But I think we topped it the other day.
Our plans that morning did not include hunting. We were trying to fix a bulldozer that had broken down in the middle of a farm we were developing. Brent was riding with me on the back of my four-wheeler when he spotted a couple of turkeys on the steep hill beside us. We stopped with interest because, after all, it was hunting season even though we had no guns. Brent noticed that a gobbler was there and was limping, so he came up with the bright idea of trying to run it down and kill it. With what you ask? A pocket knife. Yes, a pocket knife. Needless to say, I declined his offer. Brent, however, headed up the steep hill.
After a few short minutes, I heard sort of a cutting yelp from a turkey. It made me wonder who might be getting the best of this fight. A few minutes later, Brent comes back down the hill with a full blown long beard in tow. He had cornered the bird in a briar thicket, jumped on it, and used his pocket knife to finish the deal. As we checked the bird in at our local hunting store, one of the questions we had to answer to the game commission was what method we used to kill the turkey. Was it gun, bow, or crossbow? For some reason there was no pocket knife option. But what a great story!
There’s no doubt that men love adventure and we even love when the odds do not seem in our favor. It’s is a part of our make-up to be the risk taker. And while the outcome may not always result in success, the journey with a possibility of success continues to drive us. I fear, however, this is also why most men stay home from church on Sunday morning. It’s because the challenge of the hunt is more appealing than the security of the church. You may blame the hunter. I blame the church.
God calls His people to live by faith. Faith, according to the Bible, will always call us to a challenge where the odds are against us apart from God. These challenges will put men in the pews. But if we continue to live within the safe confines of our own ability, men will continue to find their thrill somewhere else. I like how someone put it…… if you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much room!
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