Our church hosted a Wild Game Dinner tonight.  I took our boys.They had no idea what to expect.  “What is a wild game dinner?” they asked, to which I replied “it’s a dinner of delicious meats of animals — and with much more variety than they have at the meat section at Meijer.    “Like what?” asked Zac.  “Oh, like duck and venison and fishes of the sea and… pretty much a sampling of Genesis 1 and 2.”  Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce was there, too.

Any time you get a bunch of fellas from the church together, at least three things happen:

First, grunts.  Noises that defy syntax yet make sense in the moment.  Example: “Meat loaf. (Grunting sound).”

Second, jokes.  Some guys were firing arrows at plastic deer (no one had the courage to tell them they’re mannequin animals) and another guy said “Oh, [name removed] put the arrow in backwards!” Laugher (grunting sound).

Third, inspiration. Being in someone else’s garage always makes me want to go home and organize my own garage.  It also makes me want to stop by Harbor Freight Tools, a veritable Big Lots of hardware, and buy up whatever knockoff compressor tool or hydraulic something that they’re pretty much giving away at $9.95.  At Harbor Freight, I always think “I’d like to get that” but I never think “I don’t really need to get that.”  How many places have a business model that goes like this: even if you use it once, it’ll pay for itself!  And that’s all the times it’ll work anyway, so more space in the garage!  Ha!  Of course I kid.

The best part?  Probably the smoked duck.  Or the Venison Meatloaf.  Perhaps it was the pulled pork, cooked over a period of 7 months and hand shaved by artisans and surgeons of the pig.  The Sweet Baby Ray’s only took it up a notch (bam).

But the very best part?  The time with my boys, with other guys, talking about life, blood, hunting, bows and/or arrows, and faith.  It’s good for them to see men who believe and whose faith is central to their identity.  The time for this kind of spiritual shaping is right now.   It’s what the church — a bunch of believers united by Jesus — is all about.   Our 20 minute conversation on the car ride home was  interesting, kinda deep, but also ridiculous.  Like when guys get together.

Plus, they were deep frying perch or walleye or pufferfish or something, and it was amazing.