Can You See Me Now?

Well, I couldn't be any happier to announce it - I think spring has finally arrived! Grass and Trees are beginning to bud, flowers are jumping out of the ground and the grass is beginning to green up. It won't be long before that lawn mower is working overtime. Spring turkey season is on our door step as well, and in fact, the youth and apprentice hunters will be in the woods this coming Saturday attempting to harvest gobblers. It's during these first couple of weeks of turkey season where the woods are still relatively bare as the trees and bushes are just beginning to bud and sprout leaves. Hunters during this time have to pay very close attention to their movements, as turkeys moving through the open woods can see just about any little head or body movement or gun barrel adjustment and will be gone in an instant. However, as the woods continue to green up and leaves on trees and bushes get larger and more abundant, hunters are able to use that foliage and its resulting shadows to get away with more movement in setting up on and adjusting to a gobbler's movements during a hunt. The increased foliage that is a help to the hunter is actually a detriment to the gobbler, as it conceals the imminent danger that he is approaching.

Ephesians 5:13 (NASB)
But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.

I can recall several spring turkey hunts where the use of foliage and its resulting shadows meant the difference between harvesting a gobbler and being detected. On one particular hunt a few years ago, my hunting partner and I used the full foliage within a block of hardwoods to slip up on a gobbler preoccupied with several hens in a field near the tree line. The movements that we made to slip up on him would have been easily detected weeks earlier in the open woods. Similarly, Satan conducts a stalk on each of our souls daily with the intent to destroy them. Without the distractions and preoccupations of our hearts and minds daily, though, we would probably be very successful at picking up on Satan's movements and adjustments, allowing us to sound the alarm and flee well before he was within range. But it's any number of things that keep us busy, deceived and from being fully focused on Christ that serve as Satan's foliage, to include but not limited to money, media, religion, relationships, routine, work, hobbies and ourselves. Satan also loves to incorporate things like confusion, contradiction, darkness, defilement, delay, distortion, distraction, doubt, and double-mindedness (The Path of Truth, 2005) to blind us, preoccupy us, and lure us within shooting range of our souls.

So sportsmen, I ask you to reflect inwardly for a moment - is the busyness and preoccupations in your lives, coupled with the strategies of Satan, causing you to stumble within range of his deadly weapons? Do you have any idea if and when you are being lured in by his tactics? Slow down your movements, reset your focus back fully on Christ, and allow Him to bring Satan's trickery into the light of truth. - GE