Shooting a bow is hard. Hunting with a bow is harder. Because it is hard and requires a lot of work, bow hunting takes an incredible amount of self-discipline to be successful. Consistent success must be earned. To be a consistently successful bow hunter quality archery form must be developed and maintained on a regular basis. Knowledge of the game animal’s senses, behavior, anatomy, and habitat must be thorough. Stealth of movement, scent, and sound must be without mistake. Equipment must be scrutinized to be sure it is appropriate, dependable, organized, and in good repair. Access to productive properties away from excessive hunting pressure must be secured (private land and limited entry public land) or discovered (over-the-counter public land). Weather conditions, time of year, and their effect on hunting conditions and game movement must be evaluated and considered. Even after all of these factors have been addressed and accounted for, the unpredictability of wild animals can cause failure to strike even the most disciplined bow hunter. There’s nothing about it that’s easy, and that’s why we love it.
Bowhunting in the mountains adds another level of difficulty because it requires such significant physical output. I’ve been elk hunting twice, once in Montana and once in Idaho. As a whitetail hunter coming from probably one of the flattest places on earth, northwest Ohio, the mountains are tough! I had to prepare my body to handle the challenge of mountain hunting. I spent a lot of time training physically before my trips so I would be strong enough to handle the terrain.
There’s a huge movement towards fitness in bowhunting which I think is a very positive thing. I believe disciplining ourselves mentally, physically, and nutritionally to become the best hunters we can be is helpful, positive, and important. However, I do not believe the application of self-discipline to achieve hunting success is where we should stop. Hunting success is not the finish line, it is not the True Target. I believe its greatest value is as a training ground for spiritual growth, spiritual warfare, and ultimately spiritual victory. I want to harness this hunting-derived self-discipline and use it to fuel much more than victory on the hunt; I want it to fuel my victory on the spiritual Hunt.
Self-discipline is inherently difficult. We’ve all set goals and made commitments to ourselves that require self-discipline, only to fail to follow through on our own good intentions. One moment we’re all fired up and motivated to reach our goals and another we’re telling ourselves it’s OK to compromise our self-discipline, as if we never felt it was important. I notice that I feel like two totally different people at times, one strong and one weak. No matter how much I tell myself I’m not going to compromise even the slightest bit, some believable excuse arises that keeps me doing the same things I despise doing and vowed never to do again. Sound familiar? Lord knows I struggle with this. I’ve often felt like Paul who said:
“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” – Romans 7:15
Have you ever considered in those moments of weakness that there is someone inside you that is separate from the you that is committed to doing the right thing? In the Bible, the sinful, weak, and selfish part of us is called the “flesh” or the “self”. Both represent our selfishness and sin. Interestingly, if we drop the “h” off the word “flesh” and spell it backwards it spells “self”. There are such things as discipline and self-discipline, and they are necessary, because of that person inside of us that is not concerned with doing what is right. Paul goes on to say:
“For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” – Romans 7:18-20
Notice he says “…it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” Paul makes a clear distinction between his sin, flesh, or self, and who he truly is. He no longer identifies with his sinful flesh, it is not who he is! Why? Because “…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
He also puts it this way:
“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” Romans 7:24
When you decide to follow, and are “in Christ”, you are a new person, you are the True You. You are as the Creator intended, you are a new “creation”. Paul’s “True You” serves God, his flesh serves sin. When we follow Jesus, we no longer have to identify with our selfish flesh and we can get to the business of killing it on a daily basis as Jesus commanded:
“And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.’” – Luke 9:23-24
Freedom from selfishness and sin is what He invites us into when He says deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow me. Taking up our cross means crucifying our selfishness. Jesus was very clear, this is something we have to do every day. Stop and think about what it means to be crucified. Crucifixion is extremely violent and brutal. He doesn’t say it will always be easy to follow Him, it will be hard! We are invited to follow the ultimate Warrior down the Warpath, not Mr. Nice Guy down Easy Street. Jesus is the toughest, strongest, most disciplined man who ever lived. He lived a perfectly disciplined, unselfish life. He’s the definition of strength and the antithesis of weakness. He was meek, not weak, meaning He submitted Himself fully to the Father, not men. He fought and won the war perfectly against His flesh and Satan, the two battlefronts we all face. He doesn’t say, come follow me, and struggle no more. Quite the opposite, He is inviting us into the Blessed Struggle in order to reach the green pastures peaceful streams. We need to embrace the Blessed Struggle and stop expecting life, especially the Christian life, to require nothing of us. It takes discipline to be his disciple. Interestingly, the words discipline and disciple are both derived from the Latin word discipulus meaning “pupil”. Consider what Jesus said:
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” – Matthew 7:13-14
The narrow and righteous path is not the easy route, it is for the disciplined not the lazy. Our difficulties and our journey don’t end when we decide to follow Jesus. That’s when we take up our cross, that’s when we take up the Warpath and the correct battle really begins. If a man wants to be a masculine, tough, strong man, he should look no further than Christianity to test his mettle. Following Jesus is not for the weak of spirit, it requires greater strength and self-discipline than any self-centered pursuit ever will.
As long as we are in this world, we will have to war against the sinful flesh living inside of us. Our voluntary crucifixion of self is not a once and done activity, it’s a daily activity. This is part of the reason I find it beneficial to work out first thing in the morning. It’s well known that physical exercise in the morning makes your whole day better because you have more energy and are in better spirits all day. I find it hard to deny the benefit of physical self-discipline as it relates spiritual self-discipline. I believe that “crucifying” my physical body first thing every day helps me conquer my selfishness and unleash the fruits of the Spirit. Listen to how Paul speaks to the importance of disciplining the body:
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. – 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Life is a race we are all running, but not all will receive the prize. In fact, some deny there is a finish line while others run after only that which perishes rather than the Imperishable Wreath of eternal life. Paul is telling us to run the right way that we may receive the Imperishable Wreath! Running is not easy, you can’t be lazy and run at the same time. It takes a lot of effort, it takes self-discipline. He says to run with an aim, run towards the true finish line, run to the One that Matters. All pursuits other than pursuing Him are perishable, fading, temporary. I love hunting and I’m proud of my successes but as much as I enjoy looking at my deer mounts, I recognize they are perishable wreaths.
Paul said he disciplined his body to keep it under control. We can use physical self-discipline as an analogical training ground for spiritual self-discipline. Physical exercise is a great opportunity to develop spiritual self-discipline because you have to decide to go against your body’s natural desire to be comfortable. When my physical flesh cries out to stop during a workout, I recognize the weakness in my body. I acknowledge the feeling of wanting to quit because something is hard, and I keep going anyway. I try to think about what He endured for me when I’m doing my workouts. I tell myself that He didn’t give in even though he could have stopped it all. He made the choice to endure that horrible suffering and never quit. He made a decision to deny Himself escape from torture by staying focused on earning for us, the Imperishable Wreath.
Self-discipline is not about earning what He’s done for me, it’s about recognizing my selfishness throughout the day when it arises then deciding to crush it and deny it, even when I don’t feel like it. Disciplining myself with physical things such as my diet and exercise are good practice and helpful reminders to deny my sinful nature in other situations. I’ll use getting my kids ready for bed as an example. When it is getting late and I’m tired and out of patience for their procrastination, I try to recognize my selfishness coming to the surface. Rather than lose my temper, I try to deny my self-centered, negative emotions and address the situation with calm assertiveness, even though I don’t feel like it.
Jocko Willink says “Discipline Equals Freedom”. I say, “Amen”. Self-discipline equals freedom from our selfishness. Let me be clear here that Jesus’ self-discipline, not ours, equals our freedom from eternal punishment, it is our free ticket into heaven, paid for by Him. Our self-discipline on earth equals freedom from our selfishness, producing fruit, multiplying what we’ve been given, and leading others towards the Imperishable Wreath, eternal freedom through Jesus. Yes, discipline does indeed equal freedom, and it produces delicious fruit.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” – Galatians 5:22-24
The fruits of the Spirit come through self-discipline, by crucifying the flesh along with its passions and desires. The opposite is true if we refuse to crucify and deny our flesh and we indulge in the passions and desires of our selfishness:
“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:20-21
Self-discipline is indeed the Blessed Opposite. In the Bible, it is usually the opposite of our natural inclinations that are rewarded. Consider this dichotomy; self-discipline is controlling my flesh by giving up control of my agenda to God. Get control by giving up control. Become free by enslaving (disciplining) yourself (flesh). Lose your life to keep it. Put yourself last to be first. Become poor to be rich. Be humble to be exalted. Love your enemies and bless those who curse you!
It can be difficult to understand how all of these opposites are more than self-punishment that will make us miserable. How will I ever be happy if all I do is the opposite of what I think will make me happy? The Blessed Opposite sounds more like slavery than freedom and it often doesn’t sound like much fun. That’s why we are often undisciplined, selfish people. However, this is a childish mindset. A baby is born with no self-discipline whatsoever and is dependent on the discipline of the parent to learn how to control themselves. Maturing is the act of moving away from selfishness. Our goal is 100% selflessness, and that’s Jesus. We admire those among us who are the most selfless and sacrifice themselves for others. We honor above all those beautiful souls who laid down their lives so that others may live. Just as a well disciplined body is naturally more attractive, a disciplined life is attractive and beautiful. So it should be with Christians and why our lives are to be well disciplined, to attract others to Him.
Consider this; there is a direct relationship between our selfishness and our misery. Likewise, there is a direct relationship between our unselfishness (self-discipline) and our joy and happiness. Think about it. When are we unhappy? When things don’t go our way. When we don’t get what we want. When we want to be doing something we like instead of doing what someone else likes. When people don’t meet our expectations. Our unhappiness is almost always related to our selfishness.
I find it helpful to think of it this way. There is a man inside of me named “Self”. Self is a man that craves indulgences and what feels good at the moment with no regard for the long term effects. Self is a man that puts his needs in front of the needs of others. Self is a man that wants complete control of all things at all times so that he gets what he wants, always. Self is a man that becomes angry when his agenda is interrupted. Self is very proud of himself, he is the opposite of humble. Self has no use for God, because he thinks he can handle things on his own, and besides, he doesn’t want to share any of the credit. Self has no concept of self-discipline, so Self must be controlled externally. Self must be disciplined by someone else. Self must be controlled or else he will control and destroy me and harm those around me. There’s only One strong enough to destroy Self living inside of me, but I must give Him permission daily to strike the fatal blow. Simply put by Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
“When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
Given the depth and importance of this subject and my difficulty in articulating it, I feel compelled at this point in my writing to pass the baton to an inspired soul that can more accurately, eloquently, and succinctly describe what I’ve clumsily attempted to impart. What follows is an excerpt from my favorite book, by my favorite author, CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity. Enjoy.
“The Christian way is different: harder, and easier. Christ says “Give me All. I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.”
Both harder and easier than what we are all trying to do. You have noticed, I expect, that Christ Himself sometimes describes the Christian way as very hard, sometimes as very easy. He says, “Take up your Cross”—in other words, it is like going to be beaten to death in a concentration camp. Next minute he says, “My yoke is easy and my burden light.” He means both. And one can just see why both are true.
Teachers will tell you that the laziest boy in the class is the one who works hardest in the end. They mean this. If you give two boys, say, a proposition in geometry to do, the one who is prepared to take trouble will try to understand it. The lazy boy will try to learn it by heart because, for the moment, that needs less effort. But six months later, when they are preparing for an exam, that lazy boy is doing hours and hours of miserable drudgery over things the other boy understands, and positively enjoys, in a few minutes. Laziness means more work in the long run. Or look at it this way. In a battle, or in mountain climbing, there is often one thing which it takes a lot of pluck to do; but it is also, in the long run, the safest thing to do. If you funk it, you will find yourself, hours later, in far worse danger. The cowardly thing is also the most dangerous thing.
It is like that here. The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self—all your wishes and precautions—to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call ‘ourselves’, to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be ‘good’. We are all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way—centred on money or pleasure or ambition—and hoping, in spite of this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly. And that is exactly what Christ warned us you could not do. As He said, a thistle cannot produce figs. If I am a field that contains nothing but grass-seed, I cannot produce wheat. Cutting the grass may keep it short: but I shall still produce grass and no wheat. If I want to produce wheat, the change must go deeper than the surface. I must be ploughed up and re-sown.
That is why the real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings, coming in out of the wind.
We can only do it for moments at first. But from those moments the new sort of life will be spreading through our system: because now we are letting Him work at the right part of us. It is the difference between paint, which is merely laid on the surface, and a dye or stain which soaks right through. He never talked vague, idealistic gas. When He said, ‘Be perfect,’ He meant it. He meant that we must go in for the full treatment. It is hard; but the sort of compromise we are all hankering after is harder—in fact, it is impossible. It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.
May I come back to what I said before? This is the whole of Christianity. There is nothing else”
So the question is, are we ready and willing every day to do the opposite of what we try do as hunters; are we ready and willing to chase away the “wild animals” so we can Hunt for Him instead?