Original Entry:
March 21, 2009
McMinnville, OR
You will not fear the terror of the night, not the
arrow that flies by day. Psalm 91:5
The Lord is my light and my salvation-whom shall I
fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my
life-of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm
27:1
Growing up hunting
California’s A-zone was a much different experience than hunting in the
northwest Oregon. Though separated by
nearly 1000 miles I still hunt the same Coast Ridge Range I hunted on
California’s gold coast. Conditions however, are as different as night and
day. In California I outfitted myself to
withstand the grueling heat that often times would exceed 100 degrees. In western Oregon I dress to overcome the
severe wet weather experienced from November to June.
Differences in
weather aside, my technique has remained to walk to my hunting spot in the dark
and wait for daylight. The black silence
of pre-dawn darkness just before the dawn is the most frightening to me. Try as I my to put my thoughts of fear aside
I know that just beyond the tunnel vision of my head lamp could be the predator
that might end my life. The trails I
hike could hide a predator in the blackness two feet away and I would be none
the wiser. To dwell on these thoughts of
death could be terrifying.
I remember one early
morning rain storm climb to my hunting spot in a nearly freezing rain deluge.
My breath danced in the rhythm of my steps and all I could see through the rays
of my lamp were the rain drops pelting my face! I could barely see the ground
in front of me. I was completely vulnerable.
But my hope was as
close as my headlamp that screamed to all predators, “A human is coming,
dangerous and formed in the image of God!”
My heart calmed down in the light of this knowledge. Psalm 27:1 states, “The Lord is my light and my salvation-whom
shall I fear?”
