Wilderness Reflections

Dipping a line in holy water

A hen mallard with her brood that I had seen on previous outings passed nearby in a silent waterborne processional, keeping one wary eye on me and another peeled for any other dangers as she did. I noted sadly that her brood was down in number, apparently having lost a member to some sort of predator, of which there were many in this remote place.

A muskrat also made a brief appearance. The furtive little creature seemed to prefer moving on the edges of my vision, like intuition lurks on the edge of your mind about something you can feel more than verify.  Were it not for the wake of water he left as evidence you might be tempted to ask if he was even there at all.  Certainly any trace of his passing was soon smoothed away. 

The water itself was amazingly clear, and it was almost too tempting to set the hook on rising fish even before the telltale movement of my strike indicator. The fishing flowed seamlessly into a long period of “catching”.  It almost seemed unfair; I was experiencing phenomenal luck and accounted for a number of trout before too long.   I was only a novice at trout on a fly, having spent most of my formative fishing years in the flatlands where bass and panfish were the order of the day, but today I felt particularly capable, and blessed.   It all seemed magical, and was just the sort of experience that I had heretofore only dreamed.  Or perhaps read in a magazine article written by some other more fortunate soul whom I could only have imagined up until this moment might have been prone to embellishment.

I was “in the zone” as some would call it, having entered that special place where thought did not happen, reasoning was not necessary, and the tempo of my world was dictated by the movement of my rod and fighting of the fish. All else ceased to be, and it was somewhere in that moment of timelessness that God spoke to me.  I knew God lived up here, the fact having been evident to me on virtually every occasion I had visited and in every event that occurred.  The sheer beauty of the place bespoke a Creator.   Only now, He had something to teach me, and for that moment my daily, worry-filled and worldly life was suspended as I went to school at the feet of the Master. 

Christian pursuits

 “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn.  Isaiah 51:1-2

Hunting is all about pursuit. When I first took up the sport I was fixated, as most neophytes are, on success in the field and bringing home a prize to be able to brag about. It was all about a photo to whip out of the wallet and something to hang on the wall.  This, after all, was the point of the pursuit, was it not?  

At some juncture that all changed. Hunting became not about putting something in the truck bed, but to pursue knowledge of the sport itself, to learn the woods and game, and become woods wise.   I took up archery not in the hopes of bagging more game, but that the endeavor would make be better. The evolution of my ability was not measured in days or weeks but years.  I find myself hunting harder each year, and while successes still come sparingly I have learned so much that I’ve never regretted the decision. I also know that I will never become a perfect hunter even with a rifle despite my progress with stick and string. That’s okay by me because it’s not always about success, but what you learn along the way.

           Sometimes, in talking with friends, we are led to discuss what is wrong with the church. There is so much in today’s society that is not uplifting or appealing to Christians. If that’s the case there should be fewer excuses and more reasons to get involved with the church, where all the uplifting and appealing stuff should exist in multitudes!  However, this is not what seems to happen.  We do not find church to be an empowering event.  Instead it is a series of little events, ministries, and classes that all aim to “fix” our failures as Christians.  Having had more than a little experience in the Army with both failure and success, especially in an environment that valued a “zero defects” mentality, I’m of the belief today that God does not call us to lead faultless lives. I believe He calls us to lead effective lives.  The question is “how do we do that”?