By Gary Miller
I have figured out that men will do just about anything in order to feed their need for risk and adventure. Of course many women will do this as well but overall it really is men who seem to what to test the limits of normality. With just a quick online search, one can find examples of those who are doing things from bungee jumping from bridges to those who are using flying suits to soar through a deep valley like a bird. There is now even an Olympic type venue called the X (extreme) Games. These are made up of men and women once again testing the limits of man and machine. It really does make you wonder who the first to try some of these things was, and is he/she even around any longer to see it come to fruition. They remind me of the teacher who leads the course in suicide bombing. He looks at his students and says, “Now watch close, I’m only going to do this once.”
In the hunting and fishing world we have these individuals as well. For instance who decided that hog hunting would be a lot more exciting if we rushed in on the hog when the dogs had it cornered and stuck it with a knife? And how much was he drinking when he came to this conclusion. The same goes with the fisherman who decided that anyone can catch a catfish with rod and reel. Instead he decides to reach in the hole where they live and bring them out by hand. All of these are simply examples of those believe that if you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much room.
Is this normal? I actually think it is. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think it’s normal to catch fish by hand and hunt hogs with knives but I do think the desire to live on the edge is. In fact I believe that God made men this way and He wants us to live that way in areas that have an eternal impact. It can be something as extreme as flying Bibles into a communist country or as extreme as taking your paycheck that you depend on and giving it to a homeless individual. Both of these put you in a more risky place. Would God ever ask us to do something like that? Well, the Bible is full of examples when He did. The questions then are these. If God did it in the past, is there a possibility that he would do it today? And, if he would do it today, is it possible he would ask me to do it? As you can see, the answer to both of these questions is yes. So the next time you sense God asking you to do something strange, realize it’s just like God to ask and it’s just like you to say okay.
Gary Miller can be reached via e-mail at gary@outdoortruths.org.
