Too Focused!

HeartShots   “Outfitting the Heart of the Hunter”

Too Focused
I love hunting the rut!  During the rut, an encounter with a big buck can happen at any time of day.  It is amazing to me how, as deer hunters, we spend countless hours throughout the year planning, preparing, and simply daydreaming about hunting the rut.  When in reality, the rut is such a brief window of opportunity in the overall season.  With great expectation we long for those precious hours in the stand when big bucks step out of their comfort zones in search of the ladies.  Big bucks die every season in these sacred few days because they are focused on one thing…and only one thing. 

On a recent November deer hunt, I encountered a buck that was a little “too focused.”  I first saw him working through the timber in search of a doe.  Like a hound-dog on a hot track, his nose never left the ground.  Two different times his meanderings led him within close range of potentially receptive does that simply stood there, motionless.  He never saw them because he never looked up.  The buck finally made his way to within bow-range of my treestand.  With my voice I bleated to stop the deer for the shot...but he simply kept strollin’.   I grunted louder at the deer…nothing!  He kept on cruisin’ by.  Finally, before the deer slipped past me, I yelled at the buck, “Hey!”  And he stopped …broadside!

When I sat back down in my stand to let my body catch up to my pounding heart, I couldn’t help but think, “What a stupid deer!”  However, this deer was simply doing what the whitetail deer have been doing since God placed them on this earth.  For a fleeting few moments each season, bucks will stroll the woods with no regard to anything other than breeding a doe.  They become so focused on this single act that it often results in their death by a hunter…and I love it!

How similar this scenario is to the fella in the passage from Proverbs chapter 7 in the Bible.  Have you ever read it?  It talks about the ol’ boy that was chasing after a promiscuous woman.  She puts on a very attractive plea for him to go back to her house and fulfill each others’ sexual desires.  Verse 21 -23 says, “…so she seduced and enticed him with her flattery.  He followed her at once, like an ox going to the slaughter.  He was like a stag caught in a trap, awaiting the arrow that would pierce its heart.”  

In the previous chapter (6:25-27) we read, “Don’t lust for her beauty.  Don’t let her coy glances seduce you.  For a prostitute will bring you to poverty, but sleeping with another man’s wife will cost you your life.  Can a man scoop a flame into his lap and not have his clothes catch on fire?”

You’ve heard it said before, “If you play with fire…you’re gonna get burnt!”  And so it goes with playing the game of messing with another woman.  You will always get burnt.  An exciting encounter with the opposite sex could easily entice any of us.  When we let our guard down, we can be blindsided by the lure of an attractive “doe.”  But the Bible is clear.  It will cost you your life.  It’s a marriage killer….a family killer…and as it says in verse 26, it will not go unpunished. 

Have you suffered from being too focused lately?  Are the important things of life becoming a blur as you focus more and more on a path that’s leading you to destruction?  Being over-focused in work, hobbies, or someone else’s spouse, can cost you everything.  I encourage you to look up…as well as to look out for those things that would cause you to stray off course.  And look to God as your only source of strength when the temptations arise that would cause us to get a little too focused.

Visit with Brodie Swisher at   www.BroOutdoors.com    www.RealityBowhunting.com

---