Pointless post?

I was meeting with a bunch of guys this morning. We have this accountability group that meets every week. We've been meeting for several years. You would think if we were any good at it we would all be straightened out by now. But we still meet.

Anyway, a couple of the members of our group are deer hunters. They really enjoy it and occasionally are successful, often heading off to south Alabama to thin the herds. They tell some great stories of all the effort and time that go into a successful deer hunt, all aimed at those moments of sitting in a stand and waiting for the deer and the perfect shot that may come, or it may not. I can't divulge anymore detail than than because what is said in the group is confidential.

One of the deer hunters regaled us with his most recent exploit, which resulted, finally, in bagging a deer, after extreme effort and perseverance. I don't think you "bag" a deer, but I can't think of the right word right now. He finally killed one after much effort.

The next person in our circle of accountability is not a deer hunter, as far as I know. But last night he was driving the church van home with a bunch of youth in it when he hit a deer. He wasn't trying to hunt the deer, much less kill it, but the van and the deer ended up in the same place on the road at the same time and that's not good for the deer, or the van for that matter. He didn't know whether it killed the deer or not. It's kind of hard to get the van stopped and turned around in time to take a second or third shot. Too bad, because that rack would have looked great mounted in the fellowship hall. If we sang "As the Deer" there wouldn't be a dry eye in the room.

I've been laughing about that all day. I don't know why exactly. Part of it is because of the two characters telling their juxtaposed stories.

Life is just funny like that. For example, some people work round the clock to become rich. They dedicate their lives to it. They do all the "right" things. Eighteen years of education. Climbing the corporate ladder. Sucking up. Taking risks. Sacrificing a personal life. Then Jed Clampett is just shooting at some food, when up through the ground comes a bubblin crude, oil that is, Texas tea. What's the point?

I don't know what the point of this is, except that sometimes life doesn't seem to have a point. Why work so hard to hunt down a deer in the wilds of south Alabama when they more often voluntarily jump out in front of church vans less than a mile from the house? More accurately, life often doesn't seem to have the same point as we do. Maybe that's it.

Life is not pointless. Sometimes we just miss it. On the first shot. But you can always take a second shot. Or a third. We can persevere. And that may be the best we can do.