Bow season starts Saturday. I’ve been looking forward to this all year. But why?
Basically, there is just one reason: renewal. Hunting is so opposite to everything else I do that I find it freeing, refreshing, rejuvenating. My reality each day is intense — study, writing, conversations, emails, meetings, preaching, planning, leading, and so forth. I love it! But in the Fall I need to get outside and do something different. So I rise early, put on my camo, sling on my crossbow or muzzleloader or 30.06, walk out into the woods, climb a tree stand, watch the sun rise, listen to the creation wake up for the day, read Spurgeon, read Scripture, pray, think, daydream, spending several hours quiet and still and alone. And every now and then a deer walks out, giving me a brief surge of adrenalin and hyperventilation. To me, that’s a good time. It helps me go back and serve Christ with fresh energy.
Some of us might read that with mystification, even offense. I respect those concerns. But I believe it’s a personal matter. Each of us is pressing forward into what it means to live fully for Christ. And hunting is, for me, one small way I work out my salvation with fear and trembling before him. So, I relax and enjoy what he has graciously provided, referring it all back to him with grateful consecration.
And may the Lord bless you greatly as you work out your salvation too.