“Christ must increase and I must decrease.”
~ John 3:31
Since I was seven years old, and old enough to hold a real gun, I have been an ardent hunter, spending many days a year in the field. I guess, because of that fact, The Lord has often used my hunting experiences to teach me some of the greatest and most profound spiritual lessons of my life.
Odd, in a way; you’d think it would be in a church setting that He would choose to mold me and guide me, but it hasn’t worked that way.
Take this last turkey season, for instance; I learned two valuable lessons, or rather The Lord molded me twice more.
Spring gobbler hunting has been a passion for me for the last 40 years; I absolutely love it.
But along with it, have come some of my greatest spiritual defeats; I’ve long come to the conclusion that God is sovereign in all of my life and that includes hunting; He is my success. Because of that knowledge, if I wasn’t successful in any endeavor to bring home the game for which I sought, I got pretty bummed, and usually after a failed hunt, I chose not to go to church.
My reasons were few, but they would be; I was envious of others whom The Lord had blessed and discouraged that I hadn’t been blessed too. I was also angry that The Lord had not blessed me; I was embarrassed for God that he hadn’t come through and I didn’t have a praise to report, and, there was one more reason;
This first weekend of the season I was sitting in a valley and ruminating on the fact that once again I didn’t have a gobbler yet, and I was fast getting bummed about it; after all, I had camped out for three days so far and I had to go home in the morning, and I was skunked.
I asked God why? I soon decided that His blessing was once again removed from me (I had gone gobbler-less for the past two years) and so, decided to not go to church in the morning, for all of the above reasons.
As my deep-down anger at The Lord grew, (after all, he was the One in control!) all of a sudden this thought hit me; you can’t out-mad God. Why, He is The Almighty; how dare I try to teach Him a lesson by not going to church? I was thinking to myself that by not going to Church, I would somehow punish God for not blessing me (and that was my last reason).
But then as this thought crept through my dimwitted brain, I recalled the verse in Isaiah that said that with a huff of His breath, He can blow away the most powerful beings of His creation. He doesn’t blow hard on them, He merely puffs a tiny bit to blow them away.
What was I thinking? He was The Lord Creator! Immediately I confessed my sin, and you know what? All of that built up anger and frustration completely left me; why, I had deep down peace! I didn’t care any more if others were blessed and I wasn’t; I would go to church in the morning gladly. And I did!
I can’t really put into words what the change was/is, but I was changed. The following week pastor Joe accompanied me on a hunt. We had missed some chances and now I had heard a new gobbler and I decided to set back and let Joe call the bird to himself.
So I sat back behind him and began to watch all of the fun; Joe would call and the gobbler would answer and he was coming! I didn’t even bother to call or even to mask myself. Then a funny thing happened; the gobbler circled on Joe and ended up coming from behind and guess who he was coming straight at, me!!!
The next thing that happened was that I collected my first mature gobbler in three years. Joe was happy, and I was happy. We both praised the Lord aloud and bowed our heads in thanks offered up. I believe that The Lord rewarded me for accepting the change that He had made in my heart. Repentance, true repentance is a very great thing!
But God wasn’t done transforming me this particular turkey season. This year, a hunter was allowed two birds. So the next weekend I was out again accompanied again by Joseph.
We had worked birds and had failed and were heading back when Joe told me, “I am not a good hunter, I am a blessed hunter.” I could heartily agree with that statement, since I long held the same view.
But for me, there was a distinct but tiny difference; I longed for some notoriety too. I wanted God to get the glory for all He did for me, but I wanted to be also known as “a good hunter”.
Joe’s statement was very profound to hear and for days I pondered over it. I finally realized that I was seriously wrong; I needed repentance again. I realized that who cares whether I got any recognition; it was me glorifying The Lord that mattered.
And all of a sudden, something happened in my attitude and my heart; I can’t explain that either, but I was changed; I wanted God to get all of the glory! I didn’t care any more whether I ever got any of the glory- pie. My flesh seemed to finally come into agreement with my spirit.
Scripture says that all good things come from God, and I was soon to see it again; Joe and I had pursued one particular gobbler that I had dubbed “Bigfoot” because his footprint was much larger than any of the other birds.
On Saturday, without me making even one hen-call, The Lord brought Bigfoot right to me; him on one side of a ridge-top and me on the other side; we couldn’t see each other. And then the bird went silent. Minutes went by and then I heard a gobble down the ridge and not close and I figured that the bird had seen me make my last move and he had vacated the area fast. But how could I be sure?
More agonizing minutes past and all was silence. Finally I put forth a plea to God and asked for His help. Right then a raven appeared overhead and made his caw. Immediately the far bird gobbled and miraculously, Bigfoot gobbled right in front of me! He was still there!
Soon I saw faint movement and then, in an opening in the brush, a big, bright red head appeared and looked right at me, but it was too late; I had my second gobbler and it turned out to be Bigfoot!
How I praised God for His BLESSING! It wasn’t me the hunter; it was God the Blesser and Provider! And I can accept that finally, heh, heh.
Immediately the thought came back to me; it is indeed better to be blessed rather than to be good! By the way, Bigfoot has the distinction of being the heaviest gobbler that I have ever taken in these 40 years.
And so, my challenge; do you too, give God all the glory for what He does for you and gives you, or do you want a share of the glory-pie? Does your flesh fight with your spirit? Are you willing to let go and let God? If not, why not?
My Testimony
Larry Lightner
For: Calvary Chapel Silver City
May 2011 Installment
