Hitting the Target

Growing up shooting was always a part of my childhood. It probably began when we sneaked straws out of the cafeteria so that we could peg one another in the back of the head with spit wads during class.  We evolved from this primitive weapon when we cut a foot and a half off of our mothers brooms and with the help of a clothespin, grinder and some electrical tape fashioned for ourselves a homemade rubber band gun.  The range of this gun was limited and the accuracy was greatly affected by the wind, but it was all we had.

That is until our parents broke down and bought us our very own Red Rider B.B. Guns.  These gifts may have been the result of our mother's experience of sweeping with a short-handled broom and the fear that the rake might be our next victim.  What this advancement in fire power allowed was for us to go from simply getting off a shot, to being able to develop accuracy.  Yes, if it were not for the fact I wear glasses, in the process I would have actually shot my eye out.  This one unfortunate incident  aside, the air rifle allowed me to move from hitting the transformer on the electric pole behind our house, to soda pop cans across the yard, to being able to titch the eraser off of a number 2 pencil.

In high school I purchased my first 22 caliber rifle.  My best friend owned one just like it, along with a small arsenal of other hand guns, rifle and shotguns.  We spent countless afternoons on a dirt road just outside of town developing our ability to hit targets with each of these weapons.  We shot everything from paper targets, jugs filled with water, and old 45 records we used for skeet.  We would expend thousands of rounds perfecting our ability to hit was we were shooting at.  We disciplined ourselves to control our breathing, maintain the proper stance to steady our weapon and to squeeze the trigger in a gentle motion that would not move the gun.  We learned the differences of each sight and how we needed to line up our shot through it.  We learned the quirkiness of each gun.  If it shot down and to the left, we learn to adjust our shot accordingly.

At some point, during these afternoons of shooting, we would start to call our shots and compete against one another. We measured our success by how close we came to hitting our target. If we hit it we celebrated, and boasted about it.  If we missed it, we tried again, focusing more intently on what we were aiming at.

How silly would it have been if I had missed what I was aiming at and turned to my friend and tried to explain what was really important was how well I controlled my breathing, how perfect my stance was, or how smooth I pulled the trigger.  While everything we had practiced had an impact on the result, what really mattered was our ability to hit the target.  In reality, if you ever caught one of us talking about our form as worthy of praised, it was probably a sure sign that we were attempting to draw attention away from the fact that we had missed the target all together.

What was important in our shooting was our ability to hit what we were aiming at.

As I read the scriptures the target we are aiming at, as followers of Jesus, is love.  We measure our success by our ability to embody the love of God to everyone with whom we come in contact.  Galatians 5:6 goes so far as to say, the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love.  It does not matter how clever we are in developing strategy, the skills we have mastered to enable us to accomplish this plan, or how excellent we are in execution.  If the these do not result in our ability to hit the target of love, they are worthless and certainly not worth bragging about.

The target we are shooting at is well defined.  We know we are on target when our relationships are marked by patience and kindness. We know we have hit the mark when there is no hint of envy, boasting or pride.  An accurate shoot does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. When this target is stuck there is no delight in evil but there is much rejoicing with the truth. A well placed shot always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.

Yet, when I look around I see so many followers of Jesus talking about strategy, mastery of skill, and excellence rather than focusing this well defined target.  Do not get me wrong, it is not that these are unimportant, but their value is only measured by their ability to help us hit the target. 

I cannot help but wonder if our preoccupation with these things is a sign that maybe, just maybe, we are attempting to draw attention away from the fact that we had missed our target all together.  We must be willing to ask the question,” Has all of our strategy, skill development and excellence grown our capacity to demonstrate love, or has it lead us to aim at another target all together?”  It is a whole lot easier to get excited about strategy, skill and excellence when there is little evidence what we have been engaged in has embodied love. 

Sometimes I wonder if in the absence of love if we do not look to these things to somehow validate the fact that what we have been involved in has some value.  According to the Apostle Paul they cannot.  In fact, he goes so far as to say without evidence of hitting the target these things and other capacities we might look to for value are worthless and gain us nothing.  “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” 1 Cor. 13:1-3.

What if instead of looking to these things, we focused on the target of demonstrating the love of God to those around us?  What if we were willing to admit how closely we came to hitting the mark?  Just like learning to shoot all those different guns, when we recognized how far off we were from hitting the mark, we utilized these things to help us adjust our sighting of the target so we might make a more accurate shot next time we pulled the trigger.  What if we did not find satisfaction in the skills necessary to re-sight the target, but only in taking the shot and discerning how much closer we have come to the bull’s-eye?  What if the only value that was important to us was how well we have been able to hit the mark of love?

How would this change the way we evaluate what takes place in our churches?  How would this season our interactions with people outside the their walls?  How would it change the expectations we have for our leaders, one another and ourselves?  What things which we now look to for value would fall to the wayside as we disciplined ourselves to solely focus on the target of love?

Nobody is forcing us to think about these things.,  In fact, often they are doing just the opposite, they are drawing our attention to something of far less value.  However, this does not mean they are unimportant.  God thinks about them.  Looking at the breath of Scripture it seems as if God is going to be far less concerned about our strategies, skills and even our excellence, and far more concerned about how accurately we have been at hitting our target. He is going to be looking at  how well we have loved and he will judge us accordingly.  I would suggest this fact might give us pause and cause us to think about them as well.

Take careful aim, the ability to hit your target matters.