Assessing Your Aim

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Deuteronomy 6:4–6 (KJV) Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart.

What it is speaking to me:

I love Robin Hood. The story, the movies, all of it. Multiple actors have played him over the course of nearly 100 years, and each movie has portrayed him slightly differently, changing many beats of the story. But one thing stays consistent: he is great with a bow. One of the reasons I loved him was that Robin Hood never missed. He always hit what he was aiming for.

The ability to do that is largely based on endless practice, but the principle of success is largely connected to aim. The old saying goes: if you aim at two things, you will miss both. In archery that is obvious, but in life it can be true too. We can have so many desires, so many things we want to accomplish, that we end up aiming at too many things, and miss most of them. So what can we do? Focus our aim. God was telling the people of Israel that amidst all the busyness of life, all the things that needed to be accomplished just to live, they had one aim. One unifying aim in life: to love the Lord.

That aim brings all the elements of our life into harmony. We love with our heart, our soul, our strength, which means really our whole person. That wholeness brings all of our activities into the correct aim. When I have felt overwhelmed, overly busy, and somehow unfruitful all at the same time, I check my aim. Maybe it has gotten off a little. A little selfish, a little lazy, a little preoccupied with my own things. The difference between hitting a target and missing can be a matter of inches. A little loss of love for God can lead to some misses in life too.

So the question is: what are we aiming for?

What is it saying to you?

What are you aiming for?

When do you notice your aim is off?

What helps you keep your aim in the right place?

What are we going to do about it?

Assess whether your life currently has a unified, single purpose in loving God, or if your heart is divided among competing interests.