Fess up

Yesterday I called to check in with my son and we made small talk for a while and I was getting ready to get off the phone and he said, “Dad there is something bad that I need to tell you. I was going to wait until you got back, but I couldn’t sleep last night and I talked it over with my wife and I know you are on vacation, but I want to get it off my chest”.

Hmmm This sounded bad. He went on to explain that he had gone deer hunting and had accidentally shot a very small buck.

With wolves, mountain lions, and big bears essentially gone, deer have few natural enemies anymore. In order to control the deer population we are tasked by our wildlife biologist to harvest 58 does this year and my son was trying to help out with that problem. When a little whitetail buck is just six months old their antlers are not developed and especially at long distances they are difficult to distinguish from does. He mistook the little buck for a doe and hammered him.

Sigh We spend an enormous amount of time feeding and grooming our little bucks to grow into big bucks and it is sickening to take a young buck like this. It is especially heartbreaking to walk up to what you think is a doe that needs to be harvested and see a little buck lying there.

It happens.

I was disappointed that my son did not take extra time to ensure that he did not shoot a buck; however no one felt worse than he did. He vowed that he was going to quit hunting and said he was so sick about it he could not sleep or eat. (For him, not eating is a sure sign of extreme remorse.) I told him that it was just a mistake and mistakes happen to human beings. He had learned a very hard lesson and those lessons are not easily forgotten. The next time he puts the crosshairs on what he thinks is a doe, it will be a doe. I can all but assure you of that.

I am passionate about our trophy deer management program and no one knows it better than my son, and even though he knew I would likely be mad and very disappointed in him, he could not wait to confess what he had done and get it off his chest.

He need not worry.

Although disappointed in losing a young buck from the herd. I was especially proud of my son for telling me. A lesser man would have hidden what he had done somehow and no one would ever have been the wiser. I respect a man who will tell the truth and not try to avoid taking responsibility for his actions. We are to emulate God in this respect: Hebrews 6:18 – “So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie.”

I just wish all of my employees, current and former, would develop enough character to do likewise. The Bible addresses this eloquently: Luke 16:10 – “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.”

I think my situation and my son’s situation are how God looks at our mistakes. We sin and it grieves Him to no end, but our God is sympathetic and forgiving when He looks down and sees us agonize over it, confess, and ask for forgiveness, instead of trying to shift the blame to others, hide it, or worst of all not even care that the sin was committed. God is both disappointed that we sinned and happy that we honestly addressed the situation.

Make no mistake though, this has nothing to do with consequence. Sin has consequence and there is no escape from it. When we throw a rock at a window, we can regret it the moment that it leaves our hand, but it still shatters the glass, Likewise we can regret sin the moment after it occurs, but it can still shatter our lives. God can be sympathetic and forgiving, but the Bible teaches that there is still always a consequence for sin. My son need not fear me beating the crap out of him for shooting one of our little bucks; he feels worse about it already and nothing I could do to him would add much to his misery.

Now had he lied to me about it, that would be a different story. He may be 31 years old, but he is not too old to taste the belt on his buttocks and I’m not too old to put it there

1 Timothy 1:19
Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.