If you can't "bear" to read one more story about Philmont, then skip today's bulletin!

Yes, between the invitation a few weeks ago discussing gross things like dead deers in the water and gooey skin troubles from two weeks ago, you may have had your fill of stories about this boy scout camp. But my wife reminded me of one last story I'd told her, and I though it might make a good bulletin.

One thing every scout troop hopes for when you go to Philmont is to see a bear. Folks who visit Yellowstone also hope for this natural encounter, but there you can often do it from the safety of your car. At the boy scout camp, you are on a more "even" playing field with the wildlife, if you know what I mean. There is no car to run to, in fact unless you are near a ranger station there is simply nowhere to go except up a tree.

To discourage bears you put all your food, toothpaste, energy bars, etc in a bear bag that you haul up into the air every evening a good distance from your camp site. Bears don't usually fool with people unless they smell something good to eat, and if you dangle your bag high enough they can't get it and will get frustrated and move along to easier treats. We were very careful after viewing all the bear bitten campers from past trips that we saw pictures of to properly follow these safety rules, and although we'd like to see a bear we were hoping for one at a distance, preferably at the bottom of a mountain while we were on the top. A tall mountain would be nice!

Yet we got a good scare. One day about half way through the trip we woke to the quiet urging of our scoutmaster who suggested we grab pots and pans and some rocks and bang them together. Seeing a large blurry shape in the early morning light we thought one of the free range cows had gotten a bit too close and he wanted to scare it off. Making great sport we happily banged whatever was handy. It was funny until the "cow" stood up over 6 feet tall and looked at us from about 15 feet away. Apparently stinky boys are not a good to eat so the bear turned and went back the way he came.

What went wrong? We'd done everything right except we discovered later from a ranger we'd camped right across a bear trail! Kind of hard to avoid bears when you put yourself right in their path. And that is what happens with good people. They do a lot of things to get their lives right then step right in the path of sin. Folks wonder why deacons and elders need to have a wife - until they realize how easily they could fall without one. And choosing a worldly career that puts you in close contact with bad situations means, like the old saying, you run with the big dogs you're gonna get bit. We all need to consider the things we do for vocation, entertainment, for whatever and avoid sin whenever possible.

But I have one more bear story. Another troop from our town went to Philmont and never saw a bear. They were very disappointed. When they came home and developed all their film, they had a get together to compare pictures with one another. The scoutmaster showed them a picture he discovered on his camera. It was him, several of the scouts, and a tree. On the other side of the tree was a HUGE bear. They never saw it, even though it was an arms length away. There were some very astonished faces, let me tell you!

And that just reminded me. Some folks think everything is going great, that they don't need God. Perhaps they wonder if God is really watching out for them, or if it is just chance. We need to take to heart that while God is never far from us, Satan is often "unbearably" close by, too. And he bites!

Randy