Getting Onto the Field

I’ve always loved the outdoors. Whether it was playing ball, hiking trails, or walking along the beach, I have always enjoyed life outdoors. However, there is one thing that I’ve never really done at all in my 45 years of life – hunting.

Living in the South, I’ve been around hunting and hunters all my life. They would share their stories with me, and I would see pictures of their successful hunts. I would even at times enjoy some of the meat they cooked. And yet, hunting seemed close yet so far away from me personally.

I did not grow up in a hunting family. My father never hunted or took me in the woods. I had never shot a gun, wore camo, or knew the first thing to do when it comes to the hunt. While it was everywhere around me, it wasn’t in me, in my life, something I could relate to and engage in.

Then something changed.

A couple years ago, my son Aiden inherited some old hunting rifles from his grandfather who is now in heaven. He quickly developed an interest in hunting (in part I think wanting to be like his papaw) and began asking me to take him. At first, I blew it off thinking it would be a fad that would quickly go away. But the following year he asked me again, this time with greater interest. I made a few efforts to find some land where someone else could take him, but I wasn’t really interested in getting involved myself (figured I could make it someone else’s job).

This year came around, and it hit me. I only have a couple more years with Aiden in our home and he’ll be out on his own. Several things began rushing through my head. I didn’t want my legacy as his father to be one of neglect or “wish I had done that” or other forms of regret. It’s like that country song “Til You Can’t” by Cody Johnson when he sang:

I find it easy to pour into his older brother’s life because he plays all the things I grew up doing (e.g., baseball, football, basketball, etc.). But with Aiden, it required me to learn something new. It required me to make some pretty significant changes in my life. It required me to embrace some things my son loved to do, and for me to love it too.

A few months ago, something clicked. I was determined to make this happen for him (and for me). I began talking to everyone I knew who had hunted in the past, asking them to tell me what I need to do. I went YouTube and began watching video after video on how to hunt deer (even made a custom video playlist for myself as a form of disciplined education to learn as much as I could). I learned about how deer smell, the direction of the wind, food plots, ruts and scrapes, bedding areas and access points, blinds and stands and saddles, even how to field dress a deer. I made a gear inventory list of things I need to get, including a rifle, ammo, muck boots, binoculars, trail cam, etc. I bought both he and I year-round hunting licenses and of course I had to get me some warm camouflage clothing to avoid being detected.

Next thing you know, I out on some land with a smart-phone app marking land features, tracking deer movement (rut cast), and determining the most optimal wind to have and access points to enter. I determined to know where they were, how they moved, when they ate to put ourselves in the most advantageous position to encounter them in the hunt.

Then the time came to get onto the field and actually commence the hunt. Everything I had done until then was to educate and equip me for what I was there to do – locate a deer and put them down. The picture you see here is the first morning Aiden and I hunted together. It was 6AM and 17° outside, but I was absolutely loving it. I was with my son doing what he loved.

Since that time, Aiden and I have hunted more than a dozen times, spending hours on the field looking, waiting, and anticipating the opportunity to catch a deer. While we have seen many smaller does and fawns, the time hasn’t come to catch the ones we’ve been waiting for.

So has it all been a waste of time, money, and energy? Absolutely not. I have grown closer to my son through this journey into hunting as I’ve also journeyed into his heart. I wanted to make much, not little, of his desire to hunt, and a lot of things in my life had to change in order to make that happen.

When it comes to being on the mission field, I can’t help wonder if you can relate to my experiencing getting into hunting. You may have heard stories about people sharing their faith. You probably have witnessed baptisms of people whose lives have been changed because someone shared the gospel with them. You may have taken classes on evangelism or done bible studies on the doctrine of salvation. But could it be that, like me, you’ve been around the mission all your life but not actually made the decision to go on mission?

It’s intimidating.
I don’t know where to start.
My life is so busy right now, I just don’t have the time.
People won’t listen to what I have to say anyway.
I don’t have the gift of evangelism and not a very outgoing person anyway.

The list of reasons why life on mission is not embraced is endless, but that does not have to be the commentary of our lives. As followers of Christ, we have inherited the mission handed down by our heavenly Father. The mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ, and we the opportunity to make the necessary changes in our lives to respond to that call. If there is one thing that has popped into my head over and over again over the past few months, it would be this…

“If I can do all this for the sake of hunting a deer, why can’t I make the changes needed for the sake of the gospel?”

Reflecting on what motivated me to make these changes, I would have to say the following drove me to act the most:

1. Love for my son – It does not matter if I kill five deer or none. What matters is that I’m honoring the desire of my son and doing what he loves and loving it with him.
2. Time is short – I only have a couple more years with him before he is out of the house, and hunting season is only 6 weeks long. The brevity of time makes things more urgent for me.

The same is true for us as Christians. What should drive us to mission should not be guilt, drudgery, or external pressure. Love for Jesus should be what moves us to mission and sustains us even when it feels like there is not fruit from your labor. The glory of God is worth it. And yes, time is short for us as well. There is a window of time on earth we have to make much of Jesus, declare His glorious gospel, and call people to trust in Jesus Christ as Lord, and that time is now.

Not tomorrow.
Not some day.
Not one day.
But today.

Choosing to live on mission will change your life. You will do life differently. The way you pray, spend your time, eat your food, and open your doors will be shaped by the goal of bringing people who are far from God close to the arms of Jesus. But getting on the field is where you and I were meant to be as we honor the desire of our Savior to be lifted high so that all people everywhere might see and believe in Him. The changes will not be easy, but it will be worth it.

It will be worth it.