Is Your Aimer Broken?

 

In 30 short days, the Olympic Games will begin. And while the whole world watches five-time Olympian Michael Phelps swim his way to multiple gold medals, I’ll have my eye on Matt Emmons, a three-position rifle shooter from New Jersey.

What? You haven’t heard of Matt Emmons?

Oh, sure you have. This will be his fourth Olympics, after all. He’s won gold (2004), silver (2008), and bronze (2012) medals in his past appearances.

Still doesn’t ring a bell?

Well, I don’t blame you. Matt Emmons is far from a household name, but he has a story with which we can all identify:

In the 2004 Olympics, Emmons held a commanding lead in the three-position rifle shooting. This competition demands that the shooter first aim at a target from his stomach, then from his knees, and finally, stand on his feet and shoot at a bull’s eye 50 meters away. It is a sport requiring stability, calmness, and superb coordination. Rifle shooters are trained to fire between heartbeats, and wins and losses are measured by millimeters.

Emmons was one shot away from winning his second gold of the Games. All he needed to do was hit the target somewhere near the center to walk away with the win. He slowed his breathing to lower his heart rate, took aim, and fired. Bull’s eye!

Except … he hit the wrong target.

 

 

Instead of hitting the target in Lane 2, he fired at the target in Lane 3. Instead of handily winning first place, he finished in eighth place.

It seems, in this particular instance, Matt Emmons’s aimer was broken.

We can all identify with a broken aimer*, can’t we? We set a goal for our careers, or our families, and we work and work toward accomplishing it. But over time, our aim can shift ever so slightly, without us even noticing. Yet we keep working and moving toward the goal, until one day, we reach the finish line. Then we stop, and look around. We take surprised notice of our surroundings, because it doesn’t look like we thought it would. We shield our eyes from the sun as we stare down the path that led us to where we now stand. Puzzled, we think, “How did I end up here? I was aiming for something different.”

The thing about an aimer is, it always hits the target at which it’s pointed.

Friend, no one loves a broken aimer more than the enemy. “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) The enemy loves to catch us with our guard down, distract us into looking at a target in the wrong lane, and ever. so. slightly. nudging us to pull the trigger.

How is your aim these days? Are you still headed in the right direction for the goals you have for your marriage? Your children? Your work?

Maybe you’ve become distracted by life. By the easy things. Perhaps you’ve lost sight of what your goals were oh so long ago.

It’s not too late to correct your aim. But do it now — before you make a bull’s eye on a target you never intended to hit.

 

*My champion golfer father coined the term “broken aimer” one day when he was fruitlessly giving me pointers on the driving range. No matter how many adjustments I made, I could not get the ball to land where I wanted it to land. After a hot and somewhat frustrating afternoon, Dad looked at me and said, “Liz, I think your aimer’s broken.”