Exploring God’s Great Outdoors – In Hunting and in Life What Counts for Success? 

By Tom Claycomb III 

I love big game hunting. The whole experience. The hunt, boning it out, packing out the game and making my own sausage. And luckily, my family loves eating it. I just fried up a backstrap for dinner last night and it has all disappeared. 

But what if you don’t tag a deer/antelope/elk/moose? Is all lost? Was it a waste of time? Are you a loser? Let’s talk about this topic today. I think whatever venture we do in life we want it to be successful, but obviously we can’t hit a home run every time we step up to bat. I just got back from an archery deer/elk hunt a couple of days ago so all of this is fresh on my mind. 

So, what should our response be? Que sera, sera? If you have that attitude, then you’ll go through life only halfheartedly trying at everything you do. You can’t approach life with that attitude or you’ll never amount to anything.   

My father-in-law used to always say, “Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser.” But our happiness shouldn’t be totally controlled by our latest success rate. 

I used to rodeo a lot. At the end when I went pro, if you got thrown or had some bad rides, the week got to be dark until the next weekend and you redeemed yourself with a good ride. 

I then encountered the same scenario in my hunting world. I like to plan and make lists. If you don’t plan, then you have planned to fail. But does that mean that every hunting trip is a failure if I don’t kill something? Or every fishing trip is a bust if I don’t get a cooler full of fish? 

I didn’t know how to handle this but reached a point where I refused to let my circumstances dictate my happiness. I periodically heard people say that there is happiness and there is joy. I couldn’t figure that one out for a while but finally have. 

Happiness is a fleeting lover. If everything goes exactly to plan. The weather is 68-71 degrees, you tag a huge bull, you drop him 100 yards off the trail etc. etc., then you can be happy. If not,  so sorry. Maybe happiness will land on the next hunt. 

I refuse to live like that. I’m not going to let my circumstances determine my level of joy. There is a difference in joy and happiness. Happiness is determined by what is going on/happening right now. Joy is what is going on inside of you. 

If you live according to your plans, God has no room to intervene with a divine appointment. Your life is built around your plans. Yes, I still plan to the max but now and then God, well, acts like God and intervenes and does something wayyyy cooler than what I had planned. Be open to that. 

Think about it in your work world. I used to go to work every day with a game plan; 95% of the time my boss let me focus on whatever I saw as important because I set goals to obtain what he was wanting anyway. But every now and then he came in and totally changed my direction and game plans. I think it’s somewhat the same in our spiritual world. 

So, what if I go on a hunt/fishing trip and don’t get anything but I get to witness to someone or encourage them in the Lord? Is that not a great day? Think of Philip being zoomed over to save the Ethiopian eunuch. Or Jesus randomly meeting the woman at the well. I think I need to be more fluid and open to God running things instead of me. 

I’m not there yet but maybe when you take a kid fishing or hunting and they have the time of their life, maybe in the face of eternity that is just as good of a deal as being by yourself and tagging a big bull. I think we have to choose to chase after joy and not happiness. 

Christian Tip #6: I heard a cool quote once. 

Religion is sitting in church and thinking about hunting. 

Christianity is being out hunting and thinking about Jesus. 

For more information about anything in this column, contact Tom at [email protected].