By Chris Bates
My dad would take me out on dove hunts each Labor Day weekend in a big sunflower field outside of Canton. With my BB gun in hand, I was able to out-shoot Dad and everyone there (or so he made me think). Many times, my grandfather would be there, too. I got to be a top-notch retriever for both of them. I can almost still feel the hay bale against my back as I sat side by side with each of them in adoration. They were teaching me lessons and shaping me for a life in the outdoors from the beginning.
As the years progressed, Dad took my brother and me on countless duck hunts. It can be a tough sport requiring endurance, especially in frigid conditions. He taught us everything that he knew, and he did the work to make it all happen. During both the best and the most challenging periods of life, we were with each other every hunting season. As we got older, my brother and I started carrying the gear, setting up the blinds, and doing the tough equipment work.
Quite a few years later, the next seasons in the circle of life came about. Taking my daughter, stepdaughter, and stepsons out and sharing their own outdoor experiences has been tremendously rewarding. Beyond making memories, those times let us connect in ways we otherwise might not have. Reflecting now, it is obvious that I was showing and teaching them, just as lessons had been shown to me. Most recently, I have started our grandsons in the outdoors and at the camp. Their wonderment and curiosity are so good for them, and it all reminds me of the experiences I was given.
It is easy to think that we know so much as parents and grandparents. However, one of the most humbling and difficult lessons I have experienced is realizing how much I have left to learn. I have lived times when I thought I knew what direction things would take, but I wasn’t truly listening well.
Above all, we are each a child of God, and as children we can and should strive to learn. To never quit learning takes humility and an openness to continue to be shaped. 2 Peter 1 tells us to make every effort to add to our faith with goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, kindness, and love. We are responsible for always looking to our heavenly Father to teach us.
My dad and grandfather passed on to me, then I began passing on to mine. Our narratives here are generational, cyclical. We are shown one of many harvest-cycle visuals in John 12:24: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
The complete picture of the spiritual life, though, is not the same kind of repeating loop. God gifts to us the progression of an earthly life into a forever one. We are to keep learning while we’re here, and also come to Him for redemption. He shows us the pathway from our worldly experiences here into His eternal promise. Our Father’s amazing lesson for us is that our story is just beginning, and it is never finished.
Chris Bates is CEO of AgoraEversole, a full-service marketing agency in Jackson, and can be reached at Chris@AgoraEversole.com. He and his wife, Stacy, live in Madison and have adult children and three grandboys.
