For me, hunting season is officially here. I leave in a few days for Maine. It will be my first trip there. I am looking forward to experiencing temperatures that are ranging from the mid forties in the mornings to the mid seventies in the afternoon. That place must be beautiful right now.
What I am not looking forward to is the nineteen hour road trip. It will be an uncomfortable two days of traveling just to get the opportunity to hunt black bears. And still my success is not assured. The problem with the drive is not really the hours on the road but the bigger cities that I’ll have to drive through just to get there. And then there is always hitting those areas at rush hour. What is looming in my mind is the area around New York City. My guide tells me to stay west or I’ll get sucked into its clutches. I can imagine a country boy from the Tri-State area of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, getting stuck in the middle of Brooklyn or somewhere, with a gun, knife and a bumper sticker on his truck that says “will hunt for food.” Something tells me there is nothing good that could come from this situation. I think I’ll try to stay west. (Maybe drive to Michigan and head due east through Canada) I’m not going to sweat it though……I’ve heard a country boy can survive.
When I was younger, I dreaded things a lot. In fact anything that was real difficult or was outside of my comfort zone, I pretty much went into panic mode. I began to rehearse scenarios in my head – what if this happened or what if that happened – and how would I respond if it did? These were all pictures that played around in my mind. Even as a young adult, I carried this baggage with me until I began to realize that nothing ever happened like I thought it would. And those times that I just knew the end was near, it was not even close. I had wasted time and endured unwanted stress for no reason at all. Did that make all my circumstances always came out good? No, but it did keep me from giving them unnecessary and undeserved time. And it kept me sane.
The Bible gives very direct and understandable help when it comes to situations like these. It says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”
Peace is always the product of prayer and dread that leads to stress is always the product of someone who forgot that God has everything under control. |
