17 Mar Life Without onX

By: Dylan Ray

When you hear about how guys talk about onX these days, you wonder how in the world people ever hunted without it. People act like that without onX they would be lost, not having a clue as to where to go, where the boundaries were, or how to get back to their camp. Listen, I get it…I really do! We have learn to rely on the convenience of technology that without it we probably couldn’t find our pick from the duck blind ever again. We have become vulnerable without technology.

I am taken back to a time of being a young boy growing up hunting the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas with my dad. I could never figure out how we got where he was going. I could never figure out how in the pitch black he could navigate through those hills, walking on ridges, crossing creeks, and jumping falling down trees, how he never got lost. I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. Without him I would have been hopelessly lost, stuck out in the woods with no direction and no way of figuring it out.

There are two types of people in the world, my dad who seems to be able to find his way to or from anything and myself, a younger, more technological advanced generation who relies heavily on the use of onX. Now, let me say this…my dad learned it from somewhere. My dad still looked at maps. My dad still studied the terrain before going into it. My dad CANNOT be dropped in the middle of the Siberian Mountains with instructions to go to a certain place, he wouldn’t be able to, he has never been there, it’s unfamiliar territory. But, what if he had a map? What if he had onX (because even he uses it these days)? Could he make it the destination then? Yes, because he has GUIDANCE!

We have too many people trying to make it through life without any guidance, without a map, with direction, and without anything to rely on. Even the old fellas who have been around for a long time and seem to have a good handle on things, they have to continue to find guidance or they can become lost just like the rest of us. Living life without being led through what Scripture says, and being led by the Holy Spirit through prayer and fasting is literally like trying to be dropped off in the most extreme mountain ranges and being told to find your way out. My time spent with the Lord each day in His Word is what gives me direction, it’s what teaches me how to be a better dad, a better husband, a better employee, and a better Christian. I can reflect on those passages to gain knowledge when faced with a situation that I do not know how to handle. We need our map, we need our guidance, we need our direction, and that only comes from being led by the Lord.

Pslam 119:105 “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”