OFF TRACK
Psalms 16:8
I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
It was cold… brutally cold. We were at the dinner table and it had been dark for a couple of hours and the temperatures were dropping fast. I had a group of black powder deer hunters in mid-December and it was calling for record lows overnight. Before daylight came it was around -20 degrees Fahrenheit.
We knew that two of the guys that had been hunting were missing from the dinner table. But the two of them have been late before and they had a tendency of goofing off after dark sometimes. We had been trying to reach them on their cell phones, but the area they were hunting had poor service. Now we were getting worried.
Two of the guys in camp went down to the farm where they were hunting. The called a half hour later and reported that their truck was still there, their 4-wheeler was parked along the swamp edge and their were two sets of boot prints heading into the swamp… following a blood trail. My guys blew the horn on the truck a few times and the heard a gun fire off far off to the west.
The rest of our group climbed in trucks and headed out to try to locate and recover the two missing hunters. When we got there two of us began following their tracks into the heavy cedar swamp. The tracks went west in the fresh snow for about a quarter mile and then the deer they were trailing turned north for a half mile. Then the track left the blood trail and began heading back toward the 4-wheeler. Then the tracks did something strange… Instead of following their tracks back east, the way they had come, they turned Southwest into the biggest and thickest swamp in the entire area. We followed the tracks west for a long ways and we stopped and I whistled as loud as I could. I listened intently with no response.
We walked another 15 minutes and came onto a small ridge in the middle of the swamp. It We could see a long ways to the Southwest… maybe a half mile. I whistled again and flashed my light on and off. As far down the ridge as I could see, I saw a light shining in the air. I whistled again and yelled their names. I barely heard a response. 15 minutes later the 2 hunters were with us. They were soaked with sweat and exhausted. If we hadn’t found them then certainly have died of exposure overnight.
When I asked them what happened they explained that when they turned Southwest, they were sure they were going in the right direction… The further they went the more sure they were and they started walking faster and faster and getting further away from where they should be.
How many times in life have we made a wrong turn in life and we convince ourselves that we are ok and going in the direction we should be heading. Then we begin to question ourselves, but we push harder and further than we should. Pretty soon we are so far off track that we really struggle to get back. We can tell ourselves over and over again that we are right, when down deep we question ourselves… yet we’re stubborn enough to fight it. Until we turn around and hear God’s voice and look to the light, we can never get back on the right track.
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you future and a hope.
The hunters were convinced they were right. They didn’t turn back around until they heard my voice and saw the light.
Stay on the right track and when you think you might be off track, seek God’s voice through His word and look to the Light.
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