Monday, October 13, 2008

Which are the important moments?


NOTES FROM THE FIELD:

People often misjudge hunting. What is often celebrated is the few moments of the kill. When you watch those hunting shows they show you these "highlights". We are a society of people who like to relish these kinds of moments- the successful hunt; the catch of a lifetime; the victory of the kill. What many of us fail to recognize is that life is really much more about the obscured moments that never make it to the highlight reel.

For every moment of successfully harvesting a deer, there are hours of studying maps, looking for funnels, walking through the woods before the season looking for sign and trails, much time invested in trying to understand what would provoke this or that kind of behavior from the quarry; the physical work of selecting a place and installing a stand; the missed shots and blown opportunities that presented themselves. If you are successful you will recount those stories of the moment that the buck walked in and you perfectly placed your shot and shot your prey. But the stories of the failures and learning times, the work and the study all are left out.

Life is like that. We may be known for a moments success but it is really what we have done in the obscured times that determine the measure of that success. Spiritually speaking, we can never rise above the level of our prayer life- those hidden moments that create depth. The obscure times are the private prayer times that build the foundations for the successes in our ministry and life. Few recount these moments out of the spot light when reflecting on their life's work. I think of Jesus who "often withdrew to the lonely places and prayed". If not for this short verse we would be left to think that Jesus lived in the moment of the miraculous. But greatness often has its hidden points. The large oak tree in front of me is more than meets the eye, it has a complex 'unseen' root system that holds the 'seen' in place. So too, my life must have a complexity in its hidden and obscure moments to give me the success that I need.

GOOD HUNTING!

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