The discipleship group I am a part of has changed my life. There are six of us, and we meet in the Rivergate Chick-fil-A on Tuesdays. We met in the indoor playground, which is closed because of COVID. It’s tight, but we can get around a small table.
We lay our scholarly discussions aside a couple of times a year and do something more manly. Our go-to bonding effort is axe throwing. There is a place in the old Madison Square Shopping Center that serves as our facilitator.
The first time I went, I wondered how badly I would embarrass myself. Throwing a knife at a tree is as close to axe throwing as I have ever come. Not once in all my attempts have I ever been able to stick a knife in a tree. How Rambo could throw a big knife thirty feet and end up point first deep into the target has escaped me. I must be doing something wrong.
Throwing an axe is not like throwing a knife. At the axe-throwing range, the staff has taken most of the learning curve out of successfully sticking the axe in the target wall. The employee working with us said, “Put your toe on this mark. Take the axe in both hands. Raise it behind your head, and then just throw it.” It worked! The axe rotates the correct number of times, and almost always, some portion of the sharp part hits the wood target wall. Change where you put your foot, and you are on your own discovering the mechanics of your “personal” choice of foot placement.
Do what the teacher says and draw closer to the success you seek. There is a life lesson there. In fact, there are several if we process it to our pondering cavity.
In a sermon a couple of weeks ago, my pastor reaffirmed the definition of the Biblical word “sin.” “Sin,” he said, “is missing the mark.” That was my preaching definition when I was pastoring. However, something in the context of his statement caused me to make a mental note to chase that familiar definition with new eyes. I discovered that most commentators continue to define sin as “missing the mark.” However, a deeper word study took me to a better understanding. Sin is not just missing the marked bullseye. It’s missing the whole target!
In axe throwing, a four-foot square target is attached to the wall. It has a series of circles with a red bull’s eye roughly four inches across. Each concentric circle has a point value. The closer your axe sticks to the bull’s eye, the more points you accumulate.
We can quickly transfer those values to our working definition of sin to our personal assessment of our acts of sin. We successfully reason that “I may not be perfect, but….” We are implying, “I didn’t miss the mark by all that much.”
We each have missed not just the “Bull’s eye” but the whole target wall. God created us in His image, to be His image. That’s the target. His plan was for us to accurately reveal what God meant when he blew his breath into our lungs. My new mental picture is that we have a dandy axe but can’t find the wall where the target hangs.
Jesus did not die on the cross because I committed acts of sin. He died on the cross because I was “sin,” fully not what God had in mind when He created human beings. I did not just break his laws for living; I did not have His life at all. “
Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and other singers powerfully sang their life testimony, “I did It my way.” Which is precisely the “missing of the mark” I believe the Bible is talking about. God gave me the life He intended me to have, and I chose to live it the way I thought best. Simply put, I desecrated it.
When I accepted the offer of “New Life” from Jesus, he began to change how I live. He is working to eliminate my “missing the target” ways. Living as a follower of Jesus Christ is not about sinning less but about fully living the Life of God.
May I suggest you read the first eleven verses of Romans eight? Here are verses ten and eleven.
10 Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you. (CSB)
Photo – Yep! That’s me, a proud thrower of a bullseye.
Baldwin Heirlooms 