Aiming Well

The following is a copy of the Thomas Question email devotional. You can subscribe to the email edition from our website and tune into our podcast.

March 15, 2007

One of my favorite concepts has to do with target practice. When you’re dealing with a moving target, you never actually shoot right at it. If you did, you’d “hit” an empty spot of air where the target used to be (“hit” is in quotes because you won’t actually “hit” anything). Instead, you pull your sights across the target and shoot just in front of it – at an empty spot of air where the target will be by the time your shot gets there. It’s called “leading the shot” and it has more to do with rhythm than anything else because.

Many will take a good chunk of their adult lives to figure out they need to do the same thing in life. It’s not enough to aim at what you do want right now because things are going to change – and they already are. You’re dealing with a moving target. By the time you get where you think you want to go, you may not want to be there any more because you will have changed along the way. In my own life I haven’t yet achieved the stuff I wanted when I was 25 and already things have changed. Specifically, my two girls have changed everything. So you’ve got to try to “lead the shot” and aim at what you will want by the time you get there. And that’s tough.

It seems our awareness always lags behind our experience. We figure this stuff out after the fact, when the “die” is already “cast”. Hindsight is 20/20. Foresight is 20/400 (which is legally blind). Common sense can tell us that many of the cliché’s we’ve heard are probably true. Quality relationships matter more than time and money. Moral power is more important than anything you can get by cheating your way to the top. And the 75 year old you, sitting in a rocking chair is going to care about a vastly different range of things than what you’re focusing on right now. We’ve got to “lead the shot”. The trick is – can these things become real enough for us to act on them now?

In truth, the really important stuff lies in between the things that feel really important right now. I recently wrote about this in my journal: “The true test of our lives is to develop a backdrop of quality life processes which turn into a set of Jesus-like reflexes over time”. All of which is a far cry from conquering my “to do list”, making lots of money and having a big career. Far more important than all that, will my kids feel my deep love for them or just hear about it?

Why not think long and hard on these things until your awareness of them appreciates to the point where it changes your decisions? Why not think long and hard about how you can “lead the shot” and aim at where your true life will be?

This Sunday I want to work with this analogy in a slightly different way as we begin a whole new series, “Church Exposed: What is the Thomas Question Anyway?”. If I could say anything to all of West Toronto about what we believe, this Sunday would be it. Join us. You can visit our website for directions or tune into the podcast through the week.

I hope to see you there,

Chris

LAST SUNDAY
The final message in our “Deep Questions” series, “Should we really be afraid of God?”

THIS SUNDAY
Church Exposed: What you didn’t know about those Sunday morning people and what they actually believe. Visit the website for directions or tune into the podcast through the week.

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A LOOK AHEAD
March 25TH
Special guest Richard Redman

April 1ST
What could the Thomas Question look like 1, 2 and 5 years from now – and what can you do about it?

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