I am a deer hunter, and my hunting locations are usually way off the beaten path. Because dawn and dusk are often the most productive hours of the day, most of my hiking in and out of the woods is in total darkness.
The woods can be tricky to navigate in daylight, but in the dark, it is nearly impossible. Finding a concealed deer stand in the dark can be a real challenge, and getting disoriented can result in a wasted morning hunt, or worse, a debilitating injury.
On one failed hunt, the worse happened to me. A few weeks before the season, I placed my tree stand in a thick patch of oak trees located on a little ridge of ground between a swamp and a soybean field. The deer sign was very promising, and preseason spotlighting had revealed the presence of at least two bruiser bucks.
On the first day of the hunt, I left my truck two hours before daylight. To access my stand, I chose a roundabout route that would keep me from spooking deer in the soybean field. I followed a stream that I knew would get me within a hundred yards of my stand. After about thirty minutes, I arrived at the base of the ridge — or so I thought. I scanned with my flashlight, but my stand wasn’t where I thought it would be. It was the wrong ridge. I tried to backtrack to the stream, but I couldn’t find it. I stood alone in the dark and realized I had lost contact with anything that could help me find my stand.
I wasn’t lost. The woods weren’t that big, and daylight would solve my dilemma. But I was wasting valuable time, and my aimless wandering was disturbing the woods. I was frustrated. After a bit of self-loathing condemnation, I decided to continue the search for my stand. I took a step and suddenly my left foot was in excruciating pain. I fell to the ground and removed my boot, revealing a blood-stained sock and a puncture wound. I looked around and discovered a sharp spike sticking up from a board — the remnants of an old tree stand that had fallen down years before and was buried in the leaf litter.
The injury was incredibly painful, and I couldn’t put any weight on my foot. I waited for daylight and then limp-crawled for about an hour back to my truck. Getting lost in the dark resulted in an injury that kept me out of the woods for two weeks. Thirty years later, I still carry the scar of that hunt.
I was determined to never again suffer the fate of getting disoriented in the dark. I adopted the use of reflective tacks to navigate the predawn woods. Doing so has worked very well — except for one time.
I was scouting a newly acquired piece of leased ground near Erie, PA. The topography was very flat, and I knew reflective tacks would be vital for finding my stand, so I carefully marked a trail to guide me. A month later, I entered the woods and turned on my flashlight. It illuminated my tacks, along with a bunch of other tacks I wasn’t expecting to see. I knew right away that previous lease owners had left their tack trails behind, and now the woods were full of them. I tried to follow my trail, but without success. So frustrating!
The point is this: when we lose contact with the truth that can guide us, we lose our way and life is frustrating. Instead of experiencing the joy of freedom, we are left wandering aimlessly.
Are you struggling to find the truth that can guide your life? Do you feel like you’ve lost contact with anything that can give you direction? Has a meandering stream led you to the wrong ridge? Are there too many tacks in the trees? Have you tried moving forward only to suffer an injury?
“What is truth?” is not a question as much as it is an expression of frustration. It is usually asked by someone who has concluded that truth doesn’t exist or can’t be known. Listen to this interaction between Jesus and Pontus Pilate:
“Are you the king of the Jews?” “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?” “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?” Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. (John 18:33-38)
Pilate wasn’t asking Jesus for the truth — he was expressing frustration. It’s possible you feel the same way. You’re not alone. Most men are tired of spin doctors, false narratives, and “words without knowledge” (Job 38:2). We don’t know who or what to believe. Without truth to guide us, we are left to wander aimlessly in the dark. Every day feels like a repeat of the day before, a frustrating treadmill existence that doesn’t lead us anywhere. The writer of Ecclesiastes described a life without guiding truth as meaningless.
Life is too short and too valuable to waste. We must know the truth. Truth alone will guide us effectively and set us free from the frustration of meaninglessness. For that reason, we’ll focus the next several articles on the question, “What is truth?”
