Deer Hunting and Experiencing the Power of God.
I’m spending the week hunting at the deer camp.
This afternoon, while waiting patiently, I had a bit of a thought about how my history in deer hunting teaches a lesson about experiencing the presence of God.
I didn’t hunt until a decade ago. I started in my mid-30s and had great friends teaching me the ropes. I think they had a pretty good rope.
In my first hunt, we walked out to the stand at dark, and then, as the sun rose, multiple deer were already feeding in a shooting lane. I picked the biggest doe, aimed, and had a nice amount of deer meat to show for it. Thanks, John.
Just a month later, another friend took me hunting. We walked in the early afternoon, and he told me they would come out around 4:30. So we settled in, and right around 4:30, someone pressed the deer button and a herd of doe came in. I picked the biggest doe, aimed, and had even more deer meat to put back in the freezer. Thanks, Ben.
At that point, I thought deer hunting was relatively simple.
So I got into a lease the next year, started hunting, and quickly realized my previous experience probably wasn’t the best.
Deer doesn’t just magically appear.
When I was young, high school, and college-aged, I had a handful of experiences with the presence of God which were more compelling than any other vision of life. I lived with a foot in both worlds, but ultimately, these experiences with the presence of God and what it meant were powerful enough for me to begin pursuing a deep life with Jesus.
In college, I experienced what could be called revival, not in a Righteous Gemstones way, but in ways that fundamentally impact scads of people. Once, a group of us prayed all summer to experience God in a big, biblical way. We did, but it was different than we imagined, and the story will have to be shared for a different article.
(For those who know me in the offline world, just ask about Jamaica.)
For most of my late teen years and 20’s I lived with this idea that when God shows up, he does so dramatically, and in ways we can’t argue with. It’s big. It involves other people. These are experiences when you can’t doubt power.
As I grew older, disillusionment set in. There is only so much big to go around. I also think a special dispensation of grace and experience during those early Christian years.
My expectations for the presence of God were always big, right in front, and highly emotional. Luckily I had great mentors and friends showing me otherwise.But, I still catch myself praying for glimpses in my 40’s of what I experienced and lived in my early 20’s.
This morning the deer were moving. I couldn’t tell at first because the brush was high. The fog on the ground matched the same color as the whitetail deer 100 yards to the front of me. I had to always be looking because they were always moving. They didn’t just show up magically in a perfect position.
Later, in the afternoon, I slowly watched another deer step into the clearing…perfectly blending into the tall grass in the dusk. I had to look for small, almost indistinguishable movements to spot the deer.
If I’m reading a book, or horsing with my phone, I won’t see the deer. Always moving and always watching. Getting small glimpses that the reason I was in the woods was right in front of me.
In middle adulthood, I’ve learned God moves a bit like the deer. Small. Right in front of me, but somehow slightly hidden by the environment I am around. If I’m distracted by my self, or horsing around on my phone, it is easy to not realize God is moving around me.
The fancy theologians refer to the three omni’s. Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent.
The Omni’s all refer to the fact that the Living God, can be anywhere, at any time, and move only in the way he can.
To realize life is about the Omnis means living in the belief regardless of where we are, God is always moving. It is the power of the resurrection giving us access to this presence. It is the action of sanctification which empowers us to not just be in the present, but live in a way in which we are cooperating with God in what He is doing. The Spirit is a conduit for experience.
There is a necessary amount of patience to do this. Patience meets experience when we know what is true. With God, it is knowing He is always doing things around us. It is our own holiness which brings us into an alignment of vision.
Always moving. Always there.
Over the past decade, I’ve cultivated a handful of practices to see the movement of God. If I had to make a short list it would be this.
Prayers of examination.
Journaling through scripture.
Practicing thankfulness in the small (and big) things.
Always moving. Always there.
We simply have to keep our eyes open.
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