Beyond the Blind

It was just another ordinary day. I had done everything that was on my agenda for the day and had gone to the pond close to the house to work my dog for a little while. When I got back to the house, I decided to do a little organizing. Duck season was still a couple of months away, but I thought I might get a jump on things. I went to the trailer that we take duck hunting with us and started to pull stuff out and look over what I had in the various boxes. I looked around to see my son heading out of the house and coming my way and was optimistic that maybe he would stick around and help me a bit. I proceeded to hang the waders, organize and inventory what was in the ammo box and get rid of accumulated trash. Scott, my son, started on the coats and calls and then swept out the trailer ridding the inside of all remnants of the south Louisiana gumbo mud that had made the 560 mile ride back with us. As we organized, straightened, and cleaned, we talked about past trips and with a great deal of excitement, talked about what might happen in the upcoming season. As we talked, Scott looked at me and said, "Dad, you are obsessed about this stuff". I responded by telling him, "I'm not obsessed, I'm passionate". To me there is a difference.

I am passionate about many things in my life and duck hunting is one of them. More than duck hunting, I am passionate about God, my family, and my church. Another very important passion that I have is seeing men get serious about their relationship with Jesus Christ. We live in a society where men seem to think that either there is no real need for this relationship or that it somehow makes them seem weak. The problem with this line of thinking is that when a man gets serious about what God is doing in his life, it has a direct impact on his family, his job, his community and his church. All of these are directly affected by what a man does with his relationship with the God who created everything we enjoy as hunters and as humans.

In the Bible. there is a story in the book of Acts that illustrates what I am talking about and shows clearly why I am passionate about seeing men get serious about what God is doing in their lives. In the 16th chapter of Acts, there is a story about two guys named Paul and Silas. You really need to get a Bible and read this story. These two guys have an incredible encounter in a jail cell with a prison guard. After several dramatic events take place the prison guard asks Paul and Silas what he must do to be saved, what he must do to know God personally. Paul and Silas explain everything to him and the man begins a relationship with God. That is great in and of itself, but that is not the really cool part for me. The cool part is in verse 34 where is says "he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God - he and his whole family." Did you catch that? He and his whole family. You see, there is a fabulous truth here: When a man gets serious about what God is doing in his life, it directly impacts the life of his family. I have seen this many times over. When a man is leading his family, his children will follow. When a mom is bringing her kids to church all by herself, it is usually only a matter of time until we lose the kids as they get involved in something else. On the opposite side of this is the truth that when a father is bringing the family to church and staying there with them, we see time and time again that not only do the children get involved, they stay involved many times for the duration of their lives. They do this because of the influence of their father.

Over the course of the pages that follow, I hope to allow my passion for duck hunting to be intertwined with my passion to see men get serious about what God can do, or may be doing, in their lives right now. I hope you enjoy the simplicity of what I have to offer you, but more importantly I hope you come to understand the abundance of what God has to offer you!