Where God Wanted Me

The lead up to November 5th 2024 has been one of the most stressful and anxiety-driven years for a Christian in the United States in this lifetime. Regardless if you liked the Republican candidate Donald Trump or not, the future of Christianity in a time of growing persecution as well as the safety of our children was at stake. This forum is not intended to be a political one, but this context is important for this story.

In the past, I have enjoyed staying up late on election night to watch the results with a few glasses of whiskey. When 2020 had the disaster it did, it destroyed me emotionally and left me with depression for longer than I would like to admit. Not because of the loss, but because of the mass fraud that lead to the loss. I'm sure I've lost a few readers at this point, but this was simply the state that we were dealing with at the time. Because of this, major distrust in our voting systems left at least half the country concerned about a repeat of voter fraud in 2024. The way the polls were going, Trump was set to win by a landslide. Still, we all had a sinking feeling that something ominous was being planned to turn what should have been a night of confidence into a potential disaster worse than 2020. I started to realize that my planned night of competitive entertainment was potentially going to turn into a night of drunkenness and that scared me.

Up until this point deer season was not going well for me. I had been out to my tree stand four times, each with an element keeping deer from showing up. The first time I went on opening day, I could not even get into the tree stand because a group of queen paper wasps were trying to make it their place of hibernation for the winter. I had to run to the store to get a bug smoke bomb to leave in the stand, which also probably meant that deer would be avoiding the spot for a while. But if I could not get into the stand, then I decided it did not matter.

The second time was right after a full moon, so my potential targets were likely sleeping in that morning. What made this increasingly frustrating was having two friends who went on night hunts that same weekend and both were successful. One was a giant buck. I was not jealous of the buck, though I wanted one myself, but I had plans to punch all of the tags this year in order to fill my freezer for my family. I just wanted deer meat. The third time I went was just too hot as the cold front had been severely delayed this year. A common problem everyone seemed to be experiencing. More importantly, I had walked up on some deer staring right at me in the dark under my tree stand. They did not move while I climbed into position, but sometime between sitting in the dark in the tree and the dawn, they had snuck away silently.

This was also a very humid year which caused plant life to grow exponentially over the summer. Because of this, when I finally did see a couple of does during my fourth hunt, I could not capitalize on them because I could not line up a shot. They just stayed behind the thick branches of the trees or the tall weeds in the field. I refuse to take a shot unless I am confident in what I am aiming at. Those were the only deer that morning, so I lost out that day as well.

As November 5th approached, I went to church the Sunday before to hear a simple message from my pastor that seemed to resonate with the emotions that were building up for me. It was about taking the time to do nothing, no chores, and no work, in order to spend quality time with God and be open to hearing him. I have seen God in the early morning as the forest wakes up around me in the tree stand. One creature at a time begins to sing like a band warming up before a concert. Unfortunately, I had started listening to audiobooks or checking my phone during this time, losing that connection. During this sermon, I felt God speaking to me. I needed to be in that tree stand the morning after the election and I needed to put my phone away. It was not that I felt the promise of a deer, but that I needed to remove myself from my plans of political drunkenness and leave the results in God's hands. I realized it was more important to spend time with God the morning after than to wake up hungover either depressed or temporarily excited about the results. And so I made plans to be in that tree.

I considered also hunting the night before to help distract me from election night, but I had so much going on with work that I did not end up having the time to go. Instead, I ignored my phone after dinner, packed my hunting gear into my truck, and went to bed early. The next morning I avoided all social media, the internet, and even text messages. My wife was awake before I left and I thought to myself that she probably already knew the results of the election as she was looking at her phone. I left and drove through the dark of the early morning, ready to shut off the radio as soon as my car turned on. Finally secluded from the world, I made it to my tree stand.

As I waited in the cold morning air, I received a few texts, some from my wife which I didn't fully read. I later found out that the first one she sent was that Trump had won, but I did not care to know the good or the bad of the results. God asked me to be in that tree and I was there for him. As squirrels scurried down the trees and the birds began to chirp one by one, the morning light allowed me to see enough to read my Bible. I read through a few pages, glancing up every now and then to see if there was any deer activity. Squirrels have a way of making all the noise in the world where as deer won't make a sound. They will sneak right up on you.

At some point during my reading, I had this feeling of something telling me to look up. There, in the middle of the open pasture against the lake, were four doe crossing in front of me. I carefully put down my Bible and took aim at the largest one. Unfortunately, the deer slipped into the trees flooded from the lake and I lost sight of her. The others followed except one that came closer to me. I could have taken the shot, but I decided that it was too small. As the deer disappeared on me, I worked through my frustration and reminded myself that this was not why I was here.

I returned to my Bible but was too distracted by the idea that I was not going to hear them crossing. I decided that my moment with God here was not about his word at this moment, but a time of reflection. My time reading was first thing in the morning as my morning routine had been. This was to be a different kind of time spent with God. I put my Bible away and sat in reflection. Just enjoying the forest. It is amazing what you notice when you stop and reflect on all that God has created.

After a while, three of the doe came back and crossed in front of me. I lined up my rifle and followed them, frustrated yet again as they did not stop moving and the overgrown trees and brush were blocking my line of sight. Then finally, just at the end of my vision before they would have disappeared into the far trees, they stopped briefly at about 100 yards away. The angle was not perfect, but I felt like I could take the shot. I aimed at the largest one and fired. They all leaped at the sound of my rifle and pranced into the forest. I immediately questioned whether or not I had hit it or missed it. I decided to wait a little in case I did hit it and would need to give it time to expire before tracking it down. If I did miss, maybe another deer would come by. Not likely after that noise.

After a while, I climbed down and made my way over to where the deer was when I fired. I made sure to take note of some landmarks, so I could line myself up with the stand in order to find the exact spot. Unfortunately, I was not finding any blood. I widened my search and still found nothing. I decided I better do my due diligence regardless and began to search the immediate area, having no confidence at this point that I was going to find a deer. I was sure that I had somehow missed it. Maybe I needed to re-sight in my rifle since I did not have time before this season. The edge of the property was not far from this point, so I planned to continue my sweep to that point.

As I walked, I saw what looked like a pile of salt near the cattle fence on the edge of the tree line. More curious than anything, I approached to look closer. I then realized I was looking at the white belly of a deer. I did not believe what I was seeing and continued to doubt what it was until I was on top of it. Even at this moment of seeing its face, I had to wonder if this was my deer or if it had died of natural causes. I lifted it up and searched for bullet holes. Sure enough, I found a perfect lung shot. I placed my hand on its belly and felt that it was warm. I was so sure that I had missed the shot that I struggled to believe this was my deer, but sure enough, it was. I then noticed blood heading in the other direction. I must have tracked it down the opposite path that it circled to this spot on, which is why I did not find any blood.

Normally when I shoot deer they drop right away in the open pasture. Unfortunately, this one was in deep brush and there was no way I was getting the gator back here to load her up. I ended up pulling some rope out of my pack that I keep there for emergencies and tied the front legs and back legs together. I didn't want to just drag her out as the brush was pretty thick and I never want to risk tainting the meat. With the rope secured, I placed my arms through the rope like a backpack and balanced most of the weight across the top of my back. The rope was left a little longer than I would have liked, so the deer hung just above my ankles, making walking difficult with the weight bouncing off my calves. Admittedly this would have been easier if I had done some field dressing and removed a large amount of weight, but the property owner wants all deer remains burnt, buried, or tossed in order to limit the number of predators around his cattle, pigs, and chickens. The bullet hole was right where my leg was being hit, so the entire calve of my pant legs was soaked with blood by the time I got her out of the brush. I almost stepped right into a grass-covered hole at one point that I am sure would have ended poorly.

With the deer now in the open field, I hiked back for the gator. The rest was a pretty standard day as I got the doe to the barn and hung her with the help of the rancher. I made an attempt at caping and was fairly successful. I also took a different approach to my cuts as I wanted to try French chops with the ribs and backstrap.

At this point, I still did not know the results of the election and I was not sure I cared. I was told to go to the woods to be with God and he blessed me with this deer to feed my family. I was in control of my priorities. It would not be until I was back at home working on fleshing the cape of the doe when my father came over and began talking about it at about 2 pm that day. I told him I knew nothing and he was surprised I avoided it until that point. He then told me that Trump had won. Somehow I knew that would be the case. Confidence in his campaign and because no one I had run into that day seemed depressed.

As the days went by into the following week I started to feel the excited energy I would have felt that night, but as someone who is motivated by my own excitement over something to a fault, I knew there was nothing I could use this energy for. I then realized what God was trying to tell me; this election had a huge build-up, but it only resulted in one day of momentary satisfaction. Sure we have the next four years to look forward to and the relief that our children will not be in the danger they would have been if the results went the other way, but the focus on this day stands in but a moment of time. Whereas God and nature stand with us forever. God will always be there to spend time with in this life and the next. And so long as we are responsible as conservationists, there will always be deer to hunt and feed our family with. Some things are just far more important than politics. Politics are fickle, but God is forever.