NO TRESPASSING

Yesterday morning I headed out in the woods with our student pastor to try to see if I could get him a whitetail deer. We arrived plenty early before the sun began to even break the eastern sky. As we sat there with a strong south wind, warm temperatures and a moon bright enough to read a book, I knew that this was not going to be a great hunt.

Later that morning, after only seeing a few does and one small buck, the idea of bagging a huge buck was overshadowed by biscuits and gravy at the Four Corners Restaurant so we decided to end the hunt. We headed down the tree stand and decided to walk a different way out of the woods, just in case a deer might have passed us by using another way. When we were about 30 yards, I noticed something that was hanging in a tree. It was a rag tied to a rope that obviously had been used to put some type of deer scent on and then hung to attract deer. I immediately thought to myself, someone has been TRESPASSING and they are hunting out of my deer stand! Now I will be the first to tell you that hunting is not about killing something and more about the experience that is shared with others and God as I enjoy the quiet and the stillness of His creation but I still was upset! I went and asked the landowner if she knew of anyone else that was hunting and she said that no one else had permission. As I left her place, I was angry and a bit nervous about the situation. I was angry that someone had TRESPASSED and used my property and also nervous wondering if the next time my son and I walk out there that someone would be sitting in our deer stand and aiming a gun at us as we approach. This concern and anger led me to action. I went down to the local hardware store and purchased numerous NO TRESPASSING signs and I plastered them all over the property boundaries. I even placed one on a tree directly in front of the stand so that the next time the TRESPASSER got up in my stand, he would feel the guilt and shame of what he was doing and maybe fall and hurt himself... (Can I feel that way?)

So the next day, I was home outside with my son and he noticed all of my hunting stuff out by the truck. He also noticed the rag and rope that I had grabbed from the woods that was left by the TRESPASSER. It was at that time that he told me that that rag and rope that I had found was one that we had left last year and that the rag wasn't actually a rag but an old glove. I then felt so stupid! I was so concerned about the TRESPASSER and the TRESPASSING that he or she had done that I overlooked my own fault and that was that I left that hanging last year and had forgotten.

Boy what a lesson we all ought to take from that. Most of the time, we spend a lot of time looking at the injustice and wrong that someone has done that we forget about what we have done as well. We worry about all the TRESPASSES against us that we forget about our own that we make. Matthew 7:1-5 states.. “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Yes, yesterday I spent the day focusing on this TRESPASS, this wrong thing that I believed had happened to me when I should have focused on my mistake. So the next time you have a wrong done to you, before you judge, before you react, you better make sure you haven't left anything hanging in the tree!

See You @ The River...Pastor John