Since I've moved to Mississippi I've realized something... People take hunting serious here. Out west we had shooting ranges and paintball and laser tag and stuff, but here... ya'll kill stuff!Couple weeks ago we met a guy with the most powerful vision. His family has a dream of rescuing one million children from the streets of India and training them for ministry (school teachers and preachers) and sending them back into the towns and villages to save their country's soul. They have a verse that the vision came from...
Children are a gift from the Lord, like sharp arrows in the hands of a warrior. How happy is a man whose quiver is full of them! Ps 127:3-5
I was thinkin about that verse as it relates to my kids, to our ministry, to outreach, and especially to the church at large. Do we raise arrows for The Warriors hand?
Or do we raise arrows for hay bales...
My brothers are archery buffs. Man, they buy these fancy arrows... "this one'll go right through them... this one explodes in their chest rippin and tearing flesh and..." you know, all that warrior talk. And they get ready for the season in hay bales. Just set up some hay bales and put round circle on it and fire away.
But what if they never got to hunt?
You see Sam raises street kids to put in the Master's hands for his use. He collects them, sharpens them, and fires them into the heart of India for the King's sake.
I remember when we had our fifth kid, my wife looked over and with a tired smile she said, "Your quiver is full." A couple months later that had somethin to do with a vasectomy but for that day, I was just happy. "Happy is a man whose quiver is full of them."
Remember the purpose of it all? ..."like sharp arrows in the hand of a warrior." What if we approached parenting or community service or our own life like that? Am I preparing myself or my kid or that single mom or her child to be used by a mighty warrior? Isn't that why we meet and grow in grace and knowledge and why we are taught and trained and taught and trained...
Don't miss the battle. Don't stay in the quiver. Arrows are meant for something and I know one thing for sure...
It ain't lookin pretty in a quiver.
BC
1 - read/write comments:
Yet another awesome post!
As an avid bowhunter myself (you aren't I would be willing to bet) there is an interesting ROTS (rest of the story) for you to consider...
Arrows are SHORT RANGE weapons. You have to be CLOSE! It is hard to beat the adrenalin rush of being 10 yards from a bear, buffalo, deer, hog, whatever...
Could there be a correlary between that fact & the analogy in the verse?
Arrows, at short range, are deadly efficient! I've seen elephants drop dead in 30 yards after being shot with an arrow. But...there is a proviso, at close range, the archer must exercise skill & precision with the shot. Knowledge of the game, the conditions, the lay of the land are all important. Physical conditioning of the archer is also important. I've held full draw for over a minute, after running a full mile all out, and then executed a kill shot. That is the result of training & preparation coupled with opportunity & desire.
One final thought...I still hunt with a gun, and it is fun and challenging to shoot game at 100-400 yards, but there is no comparison to bowhunting.
I guess in the church world (whatever that is) it's the difference of writing a check for a "mission project" versus actually going and engaging personally.
Hay bales are ok...but if all I had to look forward to was hay bales, I'd sell all my gear & go fishin...
keep up the awesome work!!!
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