Missing The Mark

 

Sometimes Gods aim looks like it's missed the mark. We might read that and wonder, what in the world that means. Let me put a little more context behind that statement.

One of my favorite devotionals is “My Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers. The daily devotionals were taken from lectures given at the Bible training college from 1911-1917. Oswald Chambers was born and grew up in Scotland.

His ministry of teaching and preaching took him to the United States and Japan. During the last six years of his life Oswald was the principal of the Bible Training College in London, and served as a chaplain to British Commonwealth troops in Egypt during World War l. After his death, the books which bear his name were compiled by his wife.

He is thought to be a man who had mastered the spiritual secrets of a life in Christ. There certainly seems to be truth in that, as you read through his thoughts.

This morning his entry grabbed me. In the final paragraph it reads “God’s aim looks like missing the mark because we are too short-sighted to see what He is aiming at.”

How many times have we all thought (if not out loud, deep within us) “That can’t be Gods plan!” or “This doesn’t make any sense!” ?

I will be the first to put up my hand and admit to this sudden pang of insecurity and uncertainty at times.

As I thought about Oswald’s statement even more deeply, I felt the comfort coming from it. ..”We are too short-sighted to see what He is aiming at.”

Why in the world did I ever think I should be able to see in detail the plans of God? How in the world do I come to the conclusion, so often in my life that I should …or could, be privy to Gods bigger picture, when I don’t even possess Gods visual capacity?

“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.”-Proverbs 16:9

And if I or anyone else could actually see ahead and be able to comprehend Gods great plans and purposes, well then, where would faith come in?

I think of my own glasses. (I’m near sighted) I can pick up a book and read without any assistance, but ask me to read a sign from more than 20ft away and the picture begins to blur.

So it is, with our faith life as well. God shoots his arrow to a plan and a purpose, and that arrow quickly becomes a blur to us. Like lightening speed, it shoots ahead and from our vantage point it misses the target. Sometimes not only because we don’t have the vision to see the target; but because we had a different target in mind all together.

The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.-Isaiah 58:11

We can only see the things immediately around us. The situations and circumstances that stand before us in our time and our understanding. In our short-sightedness.

God is aiming for the targets far beyond our reach, vision or understanding.

I love what Oswald goes on to say..”At the beginning of the Christian life we have our own ideas as to what Gods purpose is-‘I am meant to go here or there’, or ‘God has called me to do this special work’; and we go and do the thing, and still the big compelling of God remains. The work we do is of no account, it is so much scaffolding compared with the big compelling of God.”

Did you hear that? Our work is scaffolding compared with what God is doing. Scaffolding does not paint the building or fix the out of reach roof. Scaffolding is simply the setting up of the project itself. We sometimes get so caught up believing we are to be part of the final solution that we see no value in setting up the scaffolding! Sometimes the menial tasks God sets us to, seem tedious and useless and we pause and wonder if God has set us in the right direction all together. The roof of our lives is still broken and the paint still chipping off of our circumstances. To us it looks like God has missed the mark.

But while God has set us to task, he is ahead of us all the while doing a work before us. It’s a work we can’t see and would not even be able to comprehend if we could.

What does this look like in our lives?

It means trusting in the chaos.

It means that even when things don’t make sense to us, they make perfect sense to God.

What does it look like when we don’t trust?

One day I was driving to an area I was vaguely familiar with. My GPS told me to make a turn but I did not agree. Although I was not completely familiar with my destination, I felt confident in the immediate area I was in. So, I ignored the GPS and made a different turn. What I had not anticipated was that the GPS was aware of a road closure that I hadn’t heard about. My wrong turn caused me to become confused, and the path back was paved with stand still traffic.

Even when we think we know what is up ahead, we can’t over navigate Gods guidance. Sometimes we change our coordinates in a panic because we’re too short sighted to see where God is taking us.

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”-Isaiah 30:21

What was it in this devotional that gave me peace? It was that God knows the way even when we don’t. That God see’s the details that we can’t. That God hits the target every time, way before we even have the target in view.  

“God’s aim looks like missing the mark because we are too short-sighted to see what He is aiming at.”

Open your ears to God in prayer. Listen for His guidance. Allow him to pull you from his quiver and set you in his bow. Stay the course he sets for you and have faith in knowing our great God never misses a target.

 

-Pastor Patti