When He Makes it Happen…

I recently got to chat with one of my friends, Lake Pickle, from Primos about his recent elk hunt out in New Mexico. Elk hunting the rut when the bulls are ripping bugles through the timber is what every hunter dreams about. Although this isn’t Lake’s first go around, it always gets the adrenaline pumping, and teaches new lessons each and every time on the mountain.“We get to a spot where we can kind of see out into the plains and we see this huge heard of elk.” As Lake is reliving this moment he is going over how they wish they would have known where all these bulls were all week, but non the less, they found them. “As soon as we got into that timber with them, it was everything you could ever dream of as an archery elk hunter. Bulls bugling, cows everywhere, and bulls chasing everywhere. I’ve only been in a situation like this one other time.”

As Lake goes over everything that is going on around him he paints the picture of how cool of a situation they have found themselves in, but how hard it can be to hunt like this. “We can’t just set up and start calling and expect something to happen because there is so much craziness going on around us. Our goal was to get up in amongst them, and pull the interest of one bull to us.” After going through the chess match of trying to move into the elk and get into position, Lake says, “The last move we make is an aggressive one, but it just so happen to have worked out”. Lake tells me that this happens to be one of those hunts that when it happened, it just happened. “Walker is calling. Bulls are answering. And then one rips off just to my nine o’clock, and this one is going to do it. It was everything I could have asked for as a bow hunter.” Lake tells me that he ended up shooting this bull at 14 yards, and after only running about 100 yards before falling, Lake had tagged out in New Mexico.

“What I learned from all of that is that I am absolutely not in control of anything that happens”, Lake humbly points out. “No matter how much we prepare and put in the work, we couldn’t have planned out the bulls doing what they did, and finding a heard like that. The whole thing was just a blessing, and while I don’t deserve any of it, I am sure thankful.”The lessons that Lake pulled from this hunt not only apply to hunting, but to every area of our life. We need to learn that we don’t have control of what is going on in our lives. We need to put in the work, and the do our best in the things that the Lord would have us to do, but in the end, we need to rely on Him. While putting ourselves in the hands of God, and relying on His provisions we need to work as hard as we can on our end.

“You do what’s possible, you do the praise. I’ll do the miracle, I’ll make the way. You put your trust in Me, you keep the faith, then when you can’t go on, that’s when I’ll do the miracle.” -Ivan Parker