Hallway of Gear

Decided last night that it was time to clean out my hunting storage room. It was nice and neat at the start of season but by last night it looked messier than a Walmart shelf after Black Friday.

After I laid it all out I stood back in amazement. I have a ton of hunting stuff! 2 pairs of boots, 2 butt cushions, 2 chairs, 2 grunt calls, 2 binoculars, a rangefinder, 3 trail cams, 2 scent sprays, 3 safety harness straps, a backpack, 1 lunch box, 2 long sleeve camo shirts, a camo t shirt, 2 pairs of camo pants, camo coveralls, briar proof coveralls, briar proof vest, tons of ammo, a compound bow and a muzzleloader.

And that's just the picture! Didnt mention my climber and the stuff I have out in my shed. (In case you now plan to rob me, also not pictured is my 12 gauge...and I won't tell you its' location!)

All that said, guess how many deer I have killed this year? Yep. You guessed it. Zero. Hallway full of gear...no deer down. By appearance alone you would assume I would have shot 15 deer, an elk, and a rhino this year. But looks can be deceiving.

In the book of 1 Samuel 16 the prophet Samuel is told to go anoint a new king from the house of Jesse. When Samuel gets there he sees Jesse's oldest son Eliab and thinks this must be the guy. Eliab was a looker. He was a man's man. And the prophet of God thought he was the obvious choice. But God had other plans. He tells Samuel "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." Samuel passes over all of Jesse's sons...except for the youngest. He was a small, young kid who wasn't even there when Samuel showed up because he was babysitting sheep. His name was David. And he became the greatest king in Israel's history.

Some people seem like they have it all together. Sometimes I act like I have it all together. And I can fool most of you. But I can't fool God. He looks at my heart. He's not impressed with my "hallway of gear". I could have a 200 inch buck on the wall, 1000 talents, 10,000 followers, and 1 million dollars and if I'm not living for God, I have nothing.

So where are you? How much do you worry about your appearance and how you are perceived by people? How much do you worry about your heart and how you are perceived by God? As seen by the picture, appearances aren't always as they seem.

All that said, it would be a beautiful thing to use that gear in late season to take down a mature buck or doe! Time will tell!

-Travis Williams

Don't Worry

As each hunting season comes and goes, you will have many unanswered questions. First, did anyone shoot the big bucks that I was after last year? Second, did the deer survive through the harsh winter? Third, were the deer plagued by any diseases? Fourth, fifth, and sixth: did any of the mature bucks die from old age, car accidents, or from some other unknown cause?  

You can drive yourself crazy worrying about all of these things that are simply out of your control. I have caught myself on more than one occasion, worrying myself over these very questions that I have no answer for at the moment. I eventually see how pointless it is and move on to things that I have a say in. Don't get me wrong, those are all very good questions that should be considered and analyzed at the appropriate time. But dwelling on them is an error in futility.  

It's one thing to be prepared but it's another thing to be obsessed. The Lord told us not to worry (Matthew 6:25). A few verses later He also informs us that we must prioritize things and put God first (Matthew 6:33). "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." Prepare the best that you can for the upcoming season but don't neglect your duties at work, at home, and at church. -Joe Bear

Bringing People Together

 Bringing People Together 

By: Joey Barrett 

Hunting in a lot of ways is a brotherhood. Sure, there are different factions of hunters, bow hunters, gun hunters, deer hunters, duck hunters, etc. But hunting has the ability to draw people together from all walks of life. There are very few things that are able to do this, hunting is one of them.   

Sports is another area that has the potential to draw people together that otherwise would not associate with one another. At a young age I experienced this first hand. Growing up in Ohio, the Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team made it to the Final Four in 1999. I distinctly remember being in junior high school and eating at a Wendy's in a nearby town. My grandfather and I sat down to eat and before you know were approached by another man and his son and we began discussing the run that the Buckeyes were making that year. My grandpa probably knew the man but I remember thinking to myself, this kid and the school that he goes to is a rival to my school, why are we talking with the enemy? It proved to be a lesson in how narrow minded I was at the time but also of how a common interest can bring people together.   

Christianity is a brotherhood. Its purpose is to draw people together to worship the creator through His Son Jesus. The Gospel has the power to bring together people in ways that hunting and sports never can. The apostle Paul wrote, "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also the interests of others (Philippians 2:3-4). Sports and hunting are categories in which we fuel our own interests. If others have the same interests as we do, great, welcome to the team, but if they don't, so be it, we move on.  

Imagine if we were to take the Philippians 2 principle and apply it to our hobbies, our job, and our everyday lives.  Hunting no longer revolves around me and my selfish interests, work stops becoming about climbing up the ladder at all costs, and our lives become enriched not only by serving Christ but by looking out for others.   

Hunting can fill your freezer, for awhile. God can fill your soul, for eternity! 

Rookie Mistakes

7.18.2015 Post

Rookie Mistakes

It was the perfect start to the season. I was up early before the sunrise. I grabbed a breakfast bar and sipped on my coffee on the way to my hunting spot.  I had all of my gear packed from the night before. I snuck into the woods in complete silence. Now the tricky part…I had to get my climber on the tree and get up 25 feet without making noise. I had failed at this before. O but not today! I put the two parts of my climber on the tree without a squeak or a clang and then began my ascent. I slowly and precisely shimmied my way up the tree I had sawed limbs off of a few weeks prior. I reached the spot I was aiming for and started to set up. I take off my backpack and pull out the screws for my compound bow and the new one I have for my self-filming camera mount. I was extra careful not to drop anything and ruin my super stealth opening day. Finally it is all set up. All that is left is to turn around, hoist up my bow, sit down, and wait for Craw Daddy the 10 point to show himself. I look and see the first signs of light on the horizon. Perfection! I turn around without making a sound. I reach for my belt loop. That’s where I connect the rope that ties to my bow to hoist it up. No rope. I check all of my belt loops. No rope. I look down in utter disbelief. I forgot to tie the bow rope onto my belt loop and my bow and the rope are now 25 feet below me. I turn around to see that I have placed the screws below my top climber cord and must remove everything before going down.

Twenty minutes later the sun is up and so am I. And I’m covered in sweat. I hang my head and sigh. This sadly isn’t the first time I have climbed the tree without the rope attached to me. Rookie mistakes. Except I’m not a rookie.

Sometimes I shake my head at the dumb mistakes I make and not just while hunting. It’s amazing to me that I can fall for the same tricks over and over again that Satan puts out there for me. It’s crazy how I can forget some of the most important things sometimes…such as…God is in control and he can handle my worries. But when I crack open the Bible I can see that I am not alone.

Paul writes in Romans 7:21-24 “So I find this law at work: When I want to good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?”

I can so relate to that. As a Christian man, I have to admit that I struggle with living the way that God wants me to. I make silly mistakes and I don’t do what I want to do. And I have to ask that question: Who will rescue me?

I like what Paul says next: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Man, am I glad that Jesus takes care of those rookie mistakes I make and lets me live at peace with God! How about you?