| Outdoor Truths: Aiming Outdoorsmen Toward Christ Feb 16th |
Gary Miller ~ outdoortruths.org
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A comedian once quipped, “aim low boys, they’re all ridin’ Shetland ponies.” That’s one of the funniest one-liners I’ve ever heard. Yet one thing that bow hunters are very familiar with is aiming low. If a deer is almost directly under our tree stand we are instructed to put our first pin about two or three inches below the place we want to hit. If that same deer is 27 yards away and above our line of sight and we are hunting from the ground, we are also instructed to aim low.
One thing that I’ve always been intrigued with is bowfishing. I’ve never been on that adventure but I feel myself trying it one day. But I have met a few hunter/fishermen who love this sport. I recently asked one of them about the technique and guess what they told me? You’re right. Aim low. In bowfishing, the water somewhat distorts the actual location of the fish. It causes them to appear a little higher than they are. So aim a foot low in order to make a good shot.
I don’t know about bowfishing, but I have shot over my share of deer simply because I forgot that one admonition. Even a recent kill that I made caused me to panic somewhat after making the shot because I hit a little high. And as soon as I saw the arrow penetrate, I thought that I should’ve aimed low.
All of this aiming-low-stuff fits right into many people’s psyche. It seems that we are a people who are somewhat content to aim low in most of our endeavors. We are content with mediocrity because it’s achieved with very little effort. There’s security in the easily attainable. There’s never a disappointment or since of failure if we always aim low. Yet aiming low will never push us to our maximum ability. It will never show us what we really are capable of doing. It will never take us to the place God has in store for us. Norman Vincent Peale wrote, “I’d rather attempt something great, and fail… than to try something ordinary, and succeed.”
My friends, in bow hunting, know when to aim low. In all of the other areas of your life, aim high. You may fail at some of your lofty goals but the pursuit will be a blast!
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