Don't Focus on the Missed Shot

Don't focus on the missed shot; reacquire the target. 

I attended the memorial service for an amazing woman named Alma Yoder this week and her grandson, Steve Long, spoke words that became God's words for me.

Steve was telling about the police range, the training regarding "missed shots" and how it relates to our walk with Christ.  Steve sent me his text about the missed shot and here are some excerpts:

The Missed Shot.  It cannot be retrieved; we cannot undo the choices and circumstances of our past.  We must lay it aside and not dwell upon it.

It demororalizes us and takes our confidence.

We unconsciously measure our next shot against the last one.

What happens when I measure myself against error?  I err again.  We don't improve by making adjustments to the error.  We improve by refocusing on the target again.  If I want the future to have different outcomes than those of the past, I must do these things:

I must lay aside that irretrievable shot.

I must re-acquire the target and shoot again.

Phil 3:13-14.  "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

We have the opportunity to choose to measure ourselves against all of the missed shots that we have made, or we can aim again at the upward calling that takes our feeble breath and magnifies it, makes it huge through our generations.

Are you measuring yourself against missed shots?  Focusing so much on what went wrong that you've lost track of the real target?  I know I can fall prey to that, and then I need to consciously step away, and take another run at the real target.  That doesn't mean we don't take care of any messes that were made by our failures, but rather that they don't become who we are and how we measure ourselves.

Thanks Steve, for allowing God to speak through you!