Musings

Today is the first day of deer season for archery,it is also my thirtieth birthday. Both of these events are symbols that my favorite time of the year has arrived-Autumn. This Autumn is even more special since my son Lukas has his first birthday on Thursday, and last Sunday I got to perform my first baptism on Lukas. That has to be one of the coolest things I have ever done, and this Sunday I may perform the Lord's Supper for the first time.

Baptism and the Lord's Supper use earthly symbols water, bread, and wine to symbolize the invisible grace of God shown to us in visible, understandable ways, and meaningful ways. We call these sacraments. The Catholic church has seven different sacraments while we Protestants observe only two -Baptism and Lord's Supper.

An idea that really struck me at seminary was the idea of the sacrementality of creation, in that in creation God has revealed invisible grace in visible means. In my travels abroad, I have had the opportunity to see glimpses of that beauty on several continents, and especially here in the United States. Luckily though God has revealed this glory all over creation and not just in the most beautiful places,it can even be found in our backyards.

I am reminded of this daily now, as I have a small herd of horses as neighbors that live across the street, and beyond them currently is a field of soybeans. I have witnessed many beautiful places, but one of my favorites is the Midwest during the harvest season. When the fields turn that golden hue and the Loess Hills (hills in Western Iowa) turn a crimson red, and the leaves start to fall like a Michigan snow, and the whitetail deer begins its annual mating ritual.There is nothing like it, everything seems so beautiful, so alive, so spiritual, and God drenched.

Simple Beginnings

Last week was my first week as a minister. I am not sure what I have got myself into but I think I like it, and I have finally found my vocation.

This blog is going to be an experiment of mixing my passion of the outdoors/creation with Christianity. "Life through the Crosshairs" is the title I chose because the crosshairs are the reticules in a rifle's scope. A scope generally has different power variations similar to a telescope or pair of binoculars. By using a scope one can glass an animal entirely or zoom into to see just a blade of grass from hundreds of yards away.

I come at life through two lenses, one through the focus of my faith, backed up by formal education of seven plus years. The other lens is a more simple view of life. I lived in Western Iowa almost my whole life,it is there where I learned to hunt- deer, pheasants, and waterfowl, as a youth. It was from my time spent in the woods in treestands, as well as the countless hours bass fishing on the neighboring small pond,that shaped me as a youth. I can instantly bring up mental images of those sacred places, In my mind I can hunt from anyone of the many trees that I have sat in. I can recall seeing the sun rise and the sunset, and sometimes in November during the rut, I have witnessed both occasions without ever leaving the stand.

Recently, to add to my love for hunting I have added turkey, and will hopefully in the future get to add big game. My dream hunt is a mule train, elk hunt during archery season in September in the wildest and remotest place in the Rocky Mountains, and that is just a start.

This blog will not just be about hunting, but it will be a view of life looked at through a Christian hunters human senses. When I hunt I feel alive, all my senses are at their peak, my eyesight catches movement from hundreds of yards away, my feet feel the sticks breaking underfoot,my ears can hear the rustle of a whitetail's stride, and my mouth can taste the essence of Fall. When that cool north wind blows in late September and October, every predatory instinct in me is turned on, and I am ready for the hunt. I long for those days, and I can't wait to someday be able to share them with my son.

I want to figure out how I can live everyday like that, everyday looking at life through the crosshairs, examining the mundane and seeing God at work in front of our very lives. I want to have my senses at their peak all the time, and not just when I am in the woods.

Maybe we need to approach life more like a hunt. We all need to slow down, breathe easier, and enjoy the simple pleasures in life. To quote a line from Bagger Vance, "God is happiest when his children are at play." Creation is my playground, and I hope to be able to share a piece of that space with you.