Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda

Wow, what an opening week of spring turkey season! I heard no fewer than two turkeys gobbling each morning out, heard as many as eight or nine one day and had gobblers close to me on the ground each day. I was blessed to harvest a lovesick gobbler on Tuesday, and was within a few inches of harvesting another on Thursday but was unable to get off a shot. See, while set up on a henned up, strutting tom at the end of a road that morning, we had a satellite bird come in gobbling to our calling. I believe that when he crossed the road heading towards us, that he likely saw that dominant tom, and silently did a half-circle around our setup to avoid any confrontation with the boss bird. After a long, quiet wait, he gobbled again at 25 yards - only he was directly behind me! I was actually able to get turned around on him as he was facing away from me strutting, but once I spun around I had a pine tree and a couple of bushes in line with him, and he stayed behind those obstructions for what seemed like an eternity. I finally decided to slowly move my head and gun barrel just a couple of inches to get a shot off around the tree, but at my first bit of movement, he sprinted away down the road.

1 John 3:18-22 (NASB)
Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.


Even though it was an absolutely awesome week in the turkey woods, I've still been playing the 'what-if' game with myself since Thursday morning. I've wondered if I had clued in sooner to that satellite gobbler's spitting and drumming behind me if I would have been in a position to harvest him. And I've considered if I had remained motionless if he would have eventually stepped those few inches out from behind that tree in order for me to get off a shot. I've even thought that on his first move to 'get out of town' I maybe could have hopped up and shot as he was going away.

We often do the 'shoulda, coulda, woulda' routine about situations that either did not go like we hoped or that we wish had been handled differently. These encounters can be of some use to us if we learn something from them, and then forget about them and move onward. However, many times we obsess on our past sins, mistakes and regrets to the point that we allow our hearts to keep us in a state of self-condemnation. I can even stress myself out so much at times like these that I can make myself sick. As Pastor Hoffmann so eloquently stated this morning, "it is in these times where we must stop trying to reform the past, and start living out the future that God has for us".

Are you allowing your heart to condemn you for past sins or mistakes? Are you thinking that by focusing so much on those situations that you can somehow go back and change them to a different outcome? I encourage you to relax in the truth that God is greater than your heart and that He knows all things. He is waiting for you to accept His forgiveness, move onward and begin living out the future that He has planned for you. - GE