Phil. 3:13-15 “one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.  All of us who are mature should take such a view of things”

Here I sit a few days away from the end of rifle season here in Maine.  It has been a long and hard season this year.  The weather has been against us most times it seems.  It’s either super warm or windy.  The deer seem to be “rutting” later and later each year.  Here we are in the last week and I am just now seeing some sign of the rut happening.  The lack of deer in my hunting area is not the problem.  The area is saturated with deer sign.  It appears to me though that due to the circumstances they are just bedding down during the day and moving at night.  The problem with that is I have not located where they are bedding down I guess.

This will be my second year in a row without harvesting a deer unless the next couple days turns out to be productive.  Something happened to me a little over a week ago that I have never experienced in hunting.  I was sitting in my stand and began to think how “useless” this was.  I pointed out to myself I had not seen anything.  Nor had my hunting partner.  After sitting that morning I came back and told my wife, “I’m done deer hunting. It’s pointless.”  My wife almost fell to the floor in shock.  I said “Yup, I’m just going to go duck hunting and turkey hunting.  Atleast, there’s some action in that.  Turkey hunting you can call and do things rather then just sit there.”  After a few minutes I came to my senses and was planning and thinking about my next deer hunting outing.

How many times does this happen to us in our walk with Christ?  We have things keep piling up on us.  We continue to go out and “sit” and do everything right, yet we see no results.  We then give up and say, “God, it’s just not worth it.”  I know this has happened to me so many times in my life.  I lose focus of the goal.  I lose faith in God and begin to focus on distractions outside of the goal.

Through this experience I have found a renewed passion for  Christ.  I had begin to think what is the point in doing many things that I know God has placed me here to do.  I have also rediscovered why I deer hunt.  It’s ultimately not to shoot a deer.  It’s the challenge of going out into his living room and trying to outsmart him.  It’s getting outdoors and enjoying God’s creation.  It’s getting away from “life” and enjoying a long standing tradition.

Don’t give up.  Don’t let life’s distractions get you down.  Stay focused on the goal.