“I’m going to be gone this weekend. I’ve got to get ready for the hunt!” Growing up in Arkansas, I heard this phrase all my life. So, when my friend said this the other day, I knew he was a serious deer hunter. Getting ready for the hunt is nothing more than work & money! I never heard a serious hunter say they don’t have time or money for the hunt. It is a year-round effort of looking for signs, placing trail cameras, plowing & planting seeds for food plots, placing tree stands, building cabins, cooking shacks, outhouses and on & on. The work projects only end on hunt day. As my friend & I parted he said, “Ya know Robert, there are hunters & pretenders.” Bam!

This picture was taken years ago with my best friend Richard & his dad (I’m the big boy in the middle). They were the hunters; I was the pretender. They lived and breathed going to the mountain as often as they could, working from dawn to dark then sitting by the campfire eating & telling stories, crawling into their sleeping bag, and doing it all over the next day. Me, well I went to be with my friend and his dad… for the good times around the campfire and to eat.

On hunt day I was usually the last one to leave camp and the first one back in camp. Usually, I would fall asleep on the stand and if I got a deer, that was OK. For Richard, his dad & brother, they would have stories of seeing & hearing different game and choosing which deer to take. They were intentional. They were prepared. It was all about the hunt.

As a pretender I had a few hunting clothes, some guns, and a few facts & stories to carry on a conversation. There were probably a few people who thought I was a hunter, but I never fooled my dear friend. He knew I didn’t have the passion for the hunt. But he hoped one day I would.

God has continued to whisper that phrase, “Hunters & Pretenders,” to my heart the last few weeks. On opening day of deer season the woods will be filled with hunters & pretenders. On Sunday morning so will our churches.

So, will you come to church this Sunday as a hunter on opening day? Did you do the work in camp (home) preparing for the day or will you just show up and hope something happens? When our passion (our heart) is connected to our work, it’s not work! It is part of the process…the experience.

That passion for the hunt is what Jesus desires from us. To come to camp (His presence) and allow Him to show you the signs, to discover the Joy only found in His Word. To put Him first. When Richard, his dad & brother planted the food plots, they knew what would happen. But only if they did the preparation work.

The first half of my life I just showed up in church. I was a pretender. I thought I was pretty good at it, until my world came crashing down! I recognized I was not prepared. I found the bottom to be lonely & terrifying. I cried out! That’s when He whispered to me. That’s when He transformed my heart to be a “hunter.” Shortly after I enrolled in Bible Study Fellowship. It was in the study of John that His Word came alive. “For the word of God is alive and active.” Hebrews 4:12

Jesus made it simple. In Matthew 7:7-8 He said, “ASK and it will be given to you; SEEK and you will find; KNOCK and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Jesus is waiting at camp for you…