Choosing to be Second

This coming Saturday is National Hunting and Fishing Day. This annual event came into being on May 2, 1972, when President Nixon signed the first proclamation of National Hunting and Fishing Day, writing, "I urge all citizens to join with outdoor sportsmen in the wise use of our natural resources and in insuring their proper management for the benefit of future generations." Over the years since, this special day has helped provide many millions of Americans with a chance to experience, understand and appreciate traditional outdoor sports. The National Hunting and Fishing Day has boasted many public relations successes, assisted by celebrities who volunteered to help spotlight the conservation accomplishments of sportsmen and women. This year's honorary chairman is Bill Dance. Celebrated on the fourth Saturday of every September, the National Hunting and Fishing Day remains one of the most effective grassroots efforts ever undertaken to promote the outdoor sports and conservation.

Luke 22:26-27 (NASB)
...but the one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant. For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves.

It is important that we take time to acknowledge that our outdoor sports traditions would have ceased to exist long ago, had it not been for the many individuals through the years who chose to think of another, of the someone there beside them - a son, a daughter, a grandchild, a sibling, a friend, a spouse - and introduce them to the outdoors. Setting aside their own time, their personal goals, even their pursuit of the next big game trophy, they instead chose to invest themselves in another and foster that person in some type of outdoors discipline, and passions and dreams were often kindled inside a new outdoorsman as a result.

It's just a small example of the movement that we have been learning about at Cool Spring over the past couple of months titled "I Am Second" (http://www.iamsecond.com/). "I am Second" is a movement meant to inspire people of all kinds to live for God and for others. People like you and me being inspired to give hope to the lonely and the hurting, help those work through and defeat destructive lifestyles, and provide inspiration to the unfulfilled. Further, "I am Second" is designed to help people discover their purpose in life. Have you discovered yours? Those of us that have found our purpose and calling in some aspect of outdoor ministry can attest to what it means to those in which we have invited to come along with us, which we have taught or developed a new skill and that we have shared life with as a result. I am encouraged when I think about the multitudes of hunters and fishermen in the Mid-Atlantic region that have chosen be second, using their passions for the outdoors not for their own glory, but rather to impact the lives of others for the sake of Christ.

Brothers, I want to encourage you to invite someone to come along with you in the outdoors this weekend and share your passion of fishing, hunting or shooting with them. At a minimum, you will create a memory that will last a lifetime, and who knows, God might just use your act of sacrifice to change a life for eternity. Start a trend in your own life this weekend and become second. - GE