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I am a waterfowler.  I enjoy seeing ducks swim.  I like hearing the whistle of the wind under their cupped wings.  I am often struck by the beauty of a flock of Canada Geese in their familiar V-formation.  More times than I can count, I have nearly run off the road while gawking at a field full of feeding geese.  And I enjoy hunting ducks and geese, and enjoying them later as table fare.

I am not asking you to understand my delight in these birds, or in chasing them with guns and gear.  I am not asking you to agree with me about the hunting aspect at all.  But the season opened in my home state of Kentucky on Thanksgiving Day, and so far I have spent 3 days chasing feathers.

The last hunt I enjoyed was in a Kentucky corn field.  I hunted it with my brother, who is the best scout and land owner permission-getter I know!  Land owners tell him yes, and the same ones tell me no!  Maybe I should switch my deodorant?  But I digress.

The morning of this corn field hunt found us wet from the cold drizzle.  But we stuck it out in anticipation of hungry geese arriving like they had several days in a row.  Except this day, we were waiting on them with some fine looking decoys.  We even had a decoy that flaps its wings, making them think a live goose is surely in that field!  Our blinds blended perfectly with the corn, allowing us to lie down on our backs in the middle of some phony geese, in hopes of fooling some real geese.  And our calls imitated the sounds of live geese very closely.

And make no mistake, we meant to lure those real geese to their deaths.  While we love watching geese, we love eating them even more!  And that means we must fool them into range of our guns, then shoot straight.

As you can see from the picture above, we did all that on this soggy morning.  We shot a "limit."  And these giant geese provide a really big portion of meat.  A half a breast feeds my whole family easily!  God is good.  It was a good morning.

For us.  Not the geese.

Why am I stating the obvious?  And why am I bothering you with details of my recent goose hunt?  Well, it dawned on me as we lay in that field that morning, that far too often we Christians are like those geese.

We often want something so badly that we will set our wings and coast right to our death to get it.  When we want something badly enough, we lose our ability to think clearly and to identify the traps laid for us.  We lose the ability to discern between the call of the Good Shepherd and the imitation call of the enemy.  We trust the wrong people.  Follow the wrong crowd.  All the other "geese" seem to think this is safe, so why not imbibe?  Looks good.  Smells good.  Feels good.

Bang!  Bang!  Bang!

There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death (Proverbs 14:12).  

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its lusts (Romans 13:14).  

So that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes (2 Corinthians 2:11).

What is it you want so badly that you will sin to get it, or sin if you do not get it?  Beware, dear Christian, you just may be staring down the barrel of a loaded gun unless you repent.      

by Keith McWhorter