Soaked to the Skin by Randy Rowley 10/25/24 ©
ByIt was cold when my wife, Chris, and I arrived in Fort Worth at the home of her brother, Roy Brigman, and his wife, Margie. It was a Christmas get-together, but as it was duck season, Roy, Chris, and I planned to hunt. Before we arrived, I found some Craigslist hunt ads and booked the two outfitters that appeared to be the most promising.
The first hunt would be a semi-guided one with Simmons Waterfowl Service near Seagoville and the second would be a guided hunt with Three Curl Outfitters near Frost. I also invited FCS members and guests to join us. Jonathan Sherwin and James Songer RSVPed for the Seagoville hunt and Michael Armstrong RSVPed for the Frost one.
The Monday morning hunt at Andrew Simmons’ place was unremarkable. At the pond that Andrew put us at Roy squeezed off two shots at some highflyers, but Chris and I didn’t pull our triggers. Jonathan and James fared much better on a different pond. Jonathan bagged a drake hooded merganser and a drake wood duck and James bagged a hen wood duck.
It was rainy and cold on Tuesday morning when we met Brett Jensen at a gas station in Frost. We followed him to a farm a few miles away, parked, grabbed our gear, and walked around 200 yards to the edge of an around one-acre pond. Brett had put five layout blinds there and concealed them well with a lot of hay on their sides and tops.
As we waited for legal shooting time, ducks started landing by the decoys. Soon there was a bunch of them. Finally, at legal shooting time, Brett issued his highly anticipated command to “take ‘em” and we popped our blinds open like four Jack-in-The-Box toys. Simultaneously, around 20 ducks took flight. In less than three seconds we had empty guns and eight ducks floating on the water.
We had steady shooting for the rest of the hunt. But towards the end of the hunt a problem developed – my Browning Gold Hunter semi-auto had become a single shot, not ejecting its spent shells. After a few minutes of trying to fix it and not changing anything, I told Brett that I needed to go to Roy’s truck and get my backup gun – my Classic Doubles 101 over/under. Brett volunteered to get it and I let him. Soon, I was back in the game, but with 1/3 less firepower.
Brett was a good caller and several times convinced ducks to join his plastic mimics. But one group passed on joining the party and instead landed in a creek around 100 yards to our right. Brett told us that they were mallards and encouraged us to try to sneak up on them. We eagerly agreed.
The four of us spread out in a line and headed to where we saw them land. We were walking slightly uphill, so we couldn’t see the creek. Just when I thought that we were walking to the wrong spot, the flock of around eight mallards took off 30 yards in front of us, flying straight up. I picked out a duck and missed with my first shot, not leading it enough, but I quickly corrected and nailed it with my second shot. No one else was as fortunate.
It fell into tall grass on the other side of the creek. Brett sent his dog to get it but it couldn’t find it, so the five of us went looking for it. I headed to where I thought it had fallen and found it around five yards to the left of where I started looking. It was my first drake mallard. Brett’s dog had run by it but didn’t see or smell it.
We returned to the blinds and hunted for a few more minutes, but the ducks had slowed down considerably. After a few minutes, Brett asked me when we would want to quit. At that point, we had 21 ducks (six drake gadwalls, four hen gadwalls, four drake ringnecks, four hen widgeons, a drake GWT, a drake pintail, and my drake mallard). I was pleased with our tally and very pleased with my mallard. I didn’t see much hope that we would get three more ducks and complete our group limit, plus we had a lot of ducks to clean, but I asked my companions to weigh in. Roy and Chris were fine with continuing to hunt or quitting, but Michael responded that he was most definitely ready to quit.
Roy, Chris, and I were wearing waders, plus waterproof coats, but Michael wasn’t. Although the blinds protected us from most of the rain, enough water had gotten into Michael’s blind to seep through his clothes and soak him to the skin. He was quite miserable but won the Tough Trooper Award for keeping his misery to himself until he was asked.
One of the objectives of duck hunting is to stay as dry as possible. Getting soaked to the skin in the dead of winter can spoil a hunt at the least and end your life at the worst.
Our hunt on that rainy day reminded me of the old saying, “If you lay down with dogs, you’ll get up with fleas.” But in Michael’s case it was, “If you lay down in the water during winter without waders and raingear on, you’ll get soaked and cold.”
This also applies to our lives as Christians. We are surrounded by temptations to sin every day. If we keep our eyes on Jesus and resist temptation, we can stay safe in his arms. But if we succumb to temptation, we’ll separate ourselves from God and end up soaked to the skin by sin.
King David is well known for committing adultery with Bathsheba and arranging the murder of her husband. He regretted his sins for the rest of his life. In Psalm 51:1 – 3, he expressed his torment and pleaded for forgiveness, saying, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.” In verses 10 – 11, he begged for purity and repented, saying, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.”
Eventually, David came to believe that his soul would be delivered. In Psalm 86:12 – 13, he wrote, “I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead.”
But his newfound peace didn’t restore his lost blessings nor shield him from earthly consequences. God said to David through Nathan the prophet in 2 Samuel 12:10, “‘Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’” Nathan’s prophecy was fulfilled – David’s earthly kingdom fell apart through family conflicts.
If we belong to Jesus and have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, when we succumb to temptation we’ll have remorse about our broken relationship with God. His forgiveness is available when we seek it. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” But the best way to not succumb to temptation is to not lay down in the cold water of sin when we’re tempted.
1 Corinthians 10:13 (NLT) says, “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.”
What are some of God’s ways out of temptation?
- Learn God’s word and apply it. Psalm 119:11 says, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”
- Pray. Jesus said in Mark 14:38a, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”
- Seek the counsel of mature Christians. Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.”
Just as Michael could have avoided being soaked to the skin if he had dressed properly, we can avoid being soaked to the skin by sin by not yielding to temptation.
Roy, Michael, Randy, and Chris
Randy and Brett