You Matter

LISTEN: (5 Min, 13 Sec)

 

QUIET, CLEAR NIGHTS in the Texas Hill Country are beautiful.

There’s a certain sense of peace in the air and a host of stars, planets and constellations shine brightly overhead.

As the group headed away from the campfire to go back to the ranch headquarters, I noticed one woman, a single mom in her late 20s staying. She looked sad, so I turned back around and sat in the chair next to her.

“Hey, are you ok,” I asked.

A tear rolled down her cheek and for the next hour she shared some monumental struggles she had been through. She was here at this beautiful ranch to hunt and have fun.

I was there to shoot photos and cover a story.

But I saw something was wrong and simply took the time to ask.

This lady who is now a friend told me, “Thanks for making me feel like I matter.”

Some of the loneliest times in a person’s life can be when they are supposed to be having the most fun. A deer hunting trip or trout fishing expedition might give a temporary reprieve from struggles but often it reminds us of the stark contrast we have going on in other parts of our life.

And sometimes this goes dark.

Suicide rates are at an all-time high in America.

The highest rate of growth in suicide is in 11-14-year-olds and veterans have the highest overall rate with an average of 22 per day.

We’re doing something wrong in our country. While we are spoon fed political and entertainment garbage that really doesn’t matter, kids, vets and many others are taking their lives.

At the end of the day, it is because some way, somehow, they have been convinced they don’t matter.

They believe their lives don’t matter.

We are here to tell you that you matter.

Yes, you.

You matter to us as people we connect with through this magazine, and you matter to more people around you than might ever think.

As a kid I went through some pretty intense bullying. I was made fun of, disparaged, slandered and lied about at a level that’s really hard to put into words beginning in about fifth grade.

It made going to school tough, especially since I never liked school to begin with and at some point, it started impacting my self-worth. I got to a point where I felt lonely, isolated and angry. I got into a fight in the first few weeks of ninth grade, which was out of character for me.

I was sick of it. I wasn’t taking it anymore.

I probably ended up on the bad end of the fight, but something changed in me then.

That night I watched an MTV special about Metallica and drummer Lars Ulrich said they did what they wanted to do and how they wanted to do it and didn’t care what other people thought.

At that moment my entire outlook changed. I said, “That’s how I want to live.”

And it was at that point I started working toward my goal of doing what I am doing right now—making a living as a professional writer and writing about the things I love.

My focus and motivation pushed me on, but it was my faith in Christ that healed all of those wounds completely. I believed then but when I started following Him, I was healed.

I recently had the privilege of taking a 15-year-old boy, his mother and grandmother into the mountains of Colorado to do photography. This young man’s father committed suicide and he was in a bad way and was one of the angriest kids I’ve ever met.

His grandmother reached out to me because she found our ministry online and wanted to know if I could do something for him.

We spent two days photographing mule deer and elk and seeing the most beautiful places in the country.

I saw something change in him when we got up to 12,000 feet and he looked over and saw a beautiful alpine lake.

“I’ve never seen anything like this. I want to come back here,” he said while taking photos of the area.

This kid was a gigantic challenge to work with but it’s what we do. And unlike most kids who are smiling from the time we meet them until the time we leave, I only saw brief moments of softening.

The big moment came when I dropped them off at home about 30 minutes south of Denver.

Before he walked into the house, he turned around.

“Yo dawg, can we get a selfie together for Instagram?”

“Yes, we can buddy. Yes, we can.”

That was called a “thank you”.

His mother teared up as he walked off, gave me a hug and said, “Thank you for letting him know that he matters.”

That’s a theme I keep hearing echo through all of our outreach and at campfires, in boats and just in everyday life.

Believe you matter. You do.

Never doubt that and use the outdoors to let other people know they matter as well. You show that to them through quality time and not beating them up about their issues but letting them see they matter enough for you to spend time with them.

That’s a greater accomplishment than any speckled trout you catch or deer you could kill.

Things like that change destinies.

 

Email Chester Moore at cmoore@fishgame.com

 

< PREV Return to CONTENTS Page NEXT >