Going Hunting with the Game Warden

I was cruising down Second Street a few weeks ago when I spotted a sign in the back window of an SUV. As an inveterate reader of signs on the backs of automobiles, I zoomed in to a death-defying distance to make it out. The sign said, “Going shopping with my husband is like going hunting with the game warden.”

You’ve got to admire a husband like that. I have coveted such influence in my own marriage. Periodically, especially at this time of the year, I issue gloomy predictions about the economic future of our country in general and of our family in particular. So far, all such forecasts have seemed to have little effect.

I have never been hunting with a game warden, but I can see how that would put a fellow under considerable pressure. It could even rob a hunt of its joy if you became consumed with sizes and limits and such.

It seems to me that some people see the Christian life in similar terms. They reason that living life with Christ aboard would be like going hunting with the game warden. You are always looking over your shoulder. You are constrained and inhibited from living life to its fullest.

C. S. Lewis told of a little boy who described God as being “The Great Spoil-Sport. He is always issuing orders and demands. If He ever sees anybody smiling or having fun, He comes over and says, ‘Stop that this very minute.’”

I would disagree with such a concept. In fact, I would say that inviting Christ to come aboard your life is just the opposite of that. His presence adds to the joy and freedom of every moment.

As Jesus was concluding His ministry on earth, He gave some parting words to His disciples on the night before His crucifixion. After giving instructions about how they ought to obey Him, He said, “”I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). Following Christ doesn’t rob life of joy; it makes our joy complete.

According to the Declaration of Independence, one of our inalienable rights in this country is “the pursuit of happiness”. Most Americans devote large amounts of their time and energy to this pursuit. The fact of the matter is that happiness usually comes not by pursuing it, but as a byproduct of some other pursuit or some other presence. Supremely, it comes as a byproduct of the presence of Christ in our lives.

An advertisement for a spa proclaimed, “We can turn your blues and blahs into oohs and aahs.” I believe that Christ can do the same in our lives.

Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). He comes not to constrict and hinder life but to bless and make it full. Why not welcome Him aboard today?