2 Timothy 4: 1-2
It was a foggy morning like many this season and I had placed myself in some planted pines about 100 yards from a small food plot. As I got there I cleared out a spot to sit, I set the camera up and began to wait quietly. After twenty minutes or so I made a few purrs and soft yelps and quickly heard something familiar. It wasn't the gobble that I wanted but it was the familiar sound of a turkey leaving the roost. I soon saw in the food plot what began to materialize from the fog as a whole flock of turkeys. I couldn't quite make out what they were, TOM'S!! Jakes, or hens but as they started to immerse from the fog covered field and into the pines I began to notice that not one or two but every single one of what had to be at least 15 were all jakes. I had to quickly debate the option, shoot or don't shoot? My mind started rationalizing, it is the last day, I am filming, it has been an awful season, they do eat the same, okay it is justified shoot a jake! Alright they are coming in slow. I'm trying to get the footage that I need and I am trying my best to stay on the biggest group with the camera while avoiding the ever watchful eyes of the bystanders, by this time only thirty yards away. When I decide that I have enough footage I try to figure out which one to shoot but I can't get one lined up and run the camera on them at the same time. When I finally get one heading toward a gap I cautiously swing the camera to the gap and ready my shotgun. Watching the view finder from the side I have decided that as soon as the turkey comes in on the view finder I was going to have to leave the camera alone, bear down on my shotgun and quickly take the shot before the jake stepped through the gap. As the jake begins approaching the gap I start to make a few slight yelps to slow him down, he clears the first tree, I see him in the view finder, I let go of the camera arm, grab the trigger guard, quickly take bead on the walking jake and pull the trigger. Awesome!!!....Except for the jake is running off, that isn't supposed to happen!? What in the world!? That is the first turkey that I have ever shot at and not harvested what in the stars happened? Well, after playing back the footage first in my mind and then on camera I noticed that I had gotten exceptional footage of a turkey walking behind a beautiful pine tree that I had shattered!!! So what went wrong? After having to swallow my pride and really trying to think about it the answer is easy. I was trying to do too much and lost focus.
With everything going on in our lives it's hard not to sometimes loose our focus. Between work, school, kids, ballgames, church, hunting, fishing, golfing and you put whatever else is in there and the list can go on and on. As Christians it is so easy to get entangled in the things of this world and loose our focus on things of God. Satan has perfected the scheme of keeping us busy and if we are not careful we will wake up one day and ask where has it all gone. I have wasted it, I was going to do something important for the Lord and my time has slipped away. We become so busy doing so many other things that we often miss opportunities to serve Christ. Don't get caught up in the things of this world and miss the real focus, don't get so busy that we miss our shot. Scripture says "Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season", glorify God in everything we do, that's our focus.
Sportsman's Tip: When turkey hunting sometimes close can be a bad thing. Don't let a turkey get too close and miss because of a rushed shot or a bad aim.
In Christ,
Wade Kendrick
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