It’s been said that embellishing the truth is one of my superhero traits. My wife says about my storytelling that “He flat out lies”! A good friend of mine, who knows me well, knows that I must show a picture to prove the truth of anything I say in private or public.

So, in three weeks, you can follow along on a hunting adventure. No need to worry about my stretching the truth or whether I’m flat out lying. An experienced cameraman is tagging along with me to record what happens on this wilderness excursion. It will be a blast. Frankly, knowing I’ll have a video to confirm my experiences is a relief. Trying to explain the unbelievable events that tend to follow me can be as exhausting as the 5-mile climbs occurring on this hunt.

So, in three weeks, the vast, majestic mountains of Colorado are my destination for a muzzleloader elk hunt. The year 1825 meets 2025! I’m using my old traditional muzzleloader rifle. Yep, they used a Hawken 50 caliber, just like mine, 200 years ago!

I’ll be wearing my buckskin coat I tanned from deerskins tanned the way the Native Americans did, 200 years ago! It’s called brain tanning. The brains of the animal contain enough oil to tan the hide, turning it into clothing. Lots of time, labor, and stretching, pulling, and softening to turn a skin into clothing that will last for years. I’ll share more on a future blog.

My buckskin coat. That truly is what connects the two years 2025 and 1825. It’s actually a great functioning piece of clothing to wear into the mountains. It is warm and soft, like a flannel jacket. But what if it gets wet, or snowed on, or I have to crawl over sharp rocks or plow through thick jagged limbs? These are all elements that must be withstood to bring success to my adventure. The buckskin can handle it.

The buckskin coat goes through several steps to change from raw animal skin to a finished piece of clothing. One of the important steps to making buckskin able to withstand the elements of the outdoors is to “smoke” it.

Smoking the buckskin involves building a fire that produces lots and lots of smoke, but very little heat. The smoke infiltrates every fiber of the skin. Here’s how best to describe this process.

The smoke molecules attach to the fibers of the buckskin. It exists within every single fiber. Each fiber now becomes waterproof from the protection of the smoke. When wearing the buckskin, if it rains or snows, the clothing will get wet.

Here’s the amazing part. As it dries, it goes back to its soft, pliable, clothlike texture. If someone hadn’t smoked it and completely covered all the fibers, the buckskin would become hard and brittle. Just like your dog’s rawhide chew toy.

Apply this important step to your Christian journey today. You have to “smoke” the buckskin to make it waterproof. Position the skin above the fire, avoiding fire yet within smoke. The longer you leave it in the smoke, the darker it becomes. Why smoke? The smoke particles cling to every fiber of the buckskin, both inside and out. This “clinging to every fiber” allows the buckskin to remain soft, even when it gets wet. If the smoke is not in every fiber, then when the coat gets wet, it will become hard as rawhide (you know, like your dog’s chewbones).

Is God in every fiber of your being? Otherwise, contact with this world we live in will produce a hardened self. Things of this world rob you of God’s Love. Your hardened heart robs you of the chance to share God’s Love with others. Let God permeate your entire being, much like smoked buckskin. He wants to be in every part of your life.

I don’t want to have a hardened heart. How can we prevent this?

Mark 12:30    Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

Jesus must be in every “fiber of our being” for us to keep from turning hard-hearted.

Let your desire for Him to be in every part of your life become the most important step in this journey. His assistance is required. Ask Him, see what happens!!

What does the world “throw” at you to make you hard-hearted? What makes it difficult to let God in every fiber of your being? Leave a comment.

See Ya! Dan Ainsworth