Window or Mirror?

Apologies for my absence; it’s been deer hunting season (gun hunting is a 9-day stretch spanning two weekends at the end of November here in WI).

I thought I would share my hunting tale for 2007 with you all, and then see if there are any lessons to be learned, or parallels to be drawn with our Christian experience and walk with our Lord.

I have been very busy with many things, and right up until the last minute, I wasn’t prepared for hunting. I stood in a long line on a Wed evening at Fleet Farm to get my license, and didn’t even know where half my equipment was until Friday evening late (early Saturday open). I finally had everything (that I could find) ready by Friday at 10pm.

For opening, I traveled all the way to my barn, and sat on some hay bales with my coffee and a blanket, rifle at the “ready”. About five minutes after opening (06:35 on Saturday) I saw a doe stick her head up right where I thought she’d be… she was with two little yearlings… skinny dogs, but she was nice! Feeling quite smug, I lined her up… 120 yards with a 30-30 with open sights… BANG! The two little ones jumped over the fence and were gone… mom ran around 40 yards to the crest of the hill at the corner of my property, and paused for a moment. I had a perfect side on shot, but I wouldn’t take it because if I missed (again), the bullet could fly a mile over the crest of the hill. I checked it out, and it was a clean miss. It would be my only good opportunity for a shot this season.

For several mornings and evenings I sat in the same place… saw deer every time; just on the other side of the fence from me and always moving. One evening in the middle of the week I was walking in at closing (4:45pm) and saw a black form at the bottom of our land (300 yards away or so). I sighted in on it and decided not too shoot, because I didn’t “know” that it was a deer. I ran inside, got some field glasses, and ran back out to check it out. It was a HUGE buck and I lined it up again, heart pounding, but as I did so I knew it was an irresponsible shot and it was likely a few minutes after closing… I held off.

Thursday morning I sat and saw NO deer all morning. When I succumbed to my frustration (around 8am) I walked the field to check the corn, looked down to the field next to me (across which the deer must run to get to me) and there was another hunter! Right on the edge of the forest! This guaranteed me no deer and was a SILLY place for him to sit. Several more times this week my new neighbor parked his truck on the main deer path from his woods to my field, guaranteeing that I would get no deer. I changed where I sat, but it was hopeless. I saw no deer the rest of the week.

Closing evening I got ready to hunt, walked outdoors and saw the truck again. Frustrated, I decided to sit at the north end of my field anyhow, just to close out the season. I sat the fencerow in the grass, and laid down to nap until sunset, knowing this was when deer would arrive. I awakened to the sound of turkey walking past… seventy of them! I sat until close, and then went in.

So, what can I learn from this experience? I’d break the year’s hunting into several phases… Preparation, First Light, Repetition, Dissolution, Anger, and Surrender.

Preparation… I didn’t do any. I wanted to have the fun of the hunt and the kill without the hard work of research or travel to a more remote location. It’s true that I knew the patterns of travel of the deer near my home, but I didn’t put any “work” into the process. I think this is a lot like the Christian experience for a lot of us. We want the “saving” without the “works”. We want to hang with Christ the Savior, and don’t want to listen to Christ our Lord. It is important to understand that as we mature, Christ does demand that we grow in His likeness and in our understanding and obedience to Him. We don’t much like that because we want the “fire insurance” that being born again provides, but we don’t really want to pay any premiums, let alone give up our entire being to Him!

When I saw that first doe five minutes after open, I was happy, and not just a little smug. I thought, “There she is, right where I predicted she’d be, this is all working out the way I want it to”. I took a snap shot and missed. Had I taken my time, been humble, thanked the Lord for the opportunity at the shot, and taken the shot with that mindset, perhaps I would have been successful. Likewise, soon after conversion, we as Christians often feel like we’ve “arrived” or that we are “due” something from God and we fail to live for Him, and not for ourselves. That is, we live in our flesh, inside; and we fail to give Him the glory, and that leads to the next phase.

Because we’ve found the Lord and begun to grow in him, we have begun some spiritual discipline. For some this is reading the Word, for some it is regular study attendance, and for some it is prayer. We continue these things for the same reason that I continued to go out every morning; even though our mindset is incomplete (wrong focus), “we” got here with these new habits, and by jove, we’ll get back to a right relationship with Him through these methods again!

When the methods (actions) do NOT turn our hearts back to the Lord (real heart change is what’s needed), we become depressed. We often plateau or backslide in our walk, and these failures give Satan a perfect place to attack us with guilt and depression. This phase can last for months, and it only until we realize that we are not in control that we are able to break free.

Finally, we admit that it’s hopeless and turn things back over to Christ. We may not end up with what WE wanted, but God gives us what He desires us to have. Much as I saw 70 beautiful turkeys walking by but didn’t get “my” deer, we get the blessings God knows that we need, rather than what we want. Instead of “walking the line” to get what we really want and “doing just enough” to get God’s blessings, we finally realize that having what we want is a stumbling block and that having what He wants is ALL that matters. When we finally admit that, and live it, we truly begin to see His blessings and become content.

We will go through this cycle – with varying frequency – throughout our Christian lives; but I’d like to suggest that we will be more content and will see more of the true blessings of the Lord when we spend most of our time in the “surrender” phase.