For three mornings, I awoke at four a.m., ate a small breakfast, and set out on a ninety minute drive in order to get to my tree stand before the morning light. After each day’s hunt, I would arrive back to the lodge at about nine-thirty p.m. with barely enough energy to eat before crashing and doing it all over again the next day.

 The first morning of any hunt, adrenaline makes up for lost sleep. After that, it’s all willpower and knowing the guys across the hall are having the same struggle and won’t have any sympathy when it’s time to pull out. No matter how I feel, others will be waiting on me and some of the younger ones will even be depending on me to be the first to roll out of the bed. It’s all about accountability. And it’s something we all need. 

 Just this morning I met one of my running partners for our morning jog. I was not feeling much like running and was hoping that my friend would be satisfied to take an easy path. He was not. Instead, he insisted that we do our regular six miler, but with the hills included that I so wanted to forgo. I, of course, succumbed to his desire, complaining the entire way until we finished. At the end of that run, I felt great and thankful for someone who would hold me accountable. 

 The Bible says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor, or if they fall, one will lift up his companion.” To say that you don’t need anybody is the height of arrogance and ignorance. It simply means that you are unwilling to deal with your problem or have yielded to the lie that you cannot change. Friend, we all need accountability in some area of our life that is more important than getting up early enough to get to a tree stand. If you truly want to change call on God first, and then call on a friend to hold you accountable to do whatever it is that God has asked you to do. You might kick and scream along the way, but at the end you will be thankful for someone who ignored your complaints and wouldn’t let you sleep or take the easy path to get to where you really wanted to be anyway.