Tight Focus

A few years ago I purchased a rifle that came with flip up iron sights, which was great. I soon wanted to purchase "necessary" accessories (i.e. bipod, laser / light combo, heat shield, adjustable grip) One of the purchases I made was for a stealth tactical, multi-color-dot scope.

I decided to leave the iron sights on however. This sighting combination really helps me zero in on a target (and I need all the help I can get...) With this sighting combination, I can obtain a target, place a colored dot on it and fire. At first I had a very difficult time acquiring and hitting my target with a high degree of accuracy. Finally, after getting it all sighted in accurately, I began to really enjoy target practice. However, if i really want to be accurate, I flip up the iron sights to bring the target into a tight focus. If I want to put an even tighter focus, I flip up the pin-dot sight, aim and fire. It's amazing what a tight focus can do. Question: Does your vision for life have a similar focus?

I do believe we must approach our life's vision in a similar, tactical fashion. We obtain a target using our natural sight, but too often we fail to tighten the focus in order to hit the target with maximum impact and result. Frustration mounts as we routinely miss our target. Or we may hit the target but we are missing the center of our focus. So pause for a moment, take a deep breath - people can get hurt at this point. (breathing, breathing, breathing, heart rate decreasing...)

Here are a few questions:
1) Are you using all of the assets available to you? (Is the Holy Spirit in control and engaged as a weapon? Are you using the Bible for shaping your vision? Is your focus distorted by the movement of the world around you...?)
2) Is your vision sighted-in? Are there any necessary adjustments for windage or elevation?
3) Have you tightened your focus onto your target?

A transformed vision for life, church, business... begins with an exacting inventory of our assets and liabilities. Then you begin the process of sighting in those assets and dealing with the liabilities, often by making only slight adjustments (sometimes significant adjustments...) At this point you are ready to tighten your focus (breath in and out lightly) pull back slowly (breathing light still), maintaining focus and steady aim, slowwwwwly pulling back to when you are surprised at the discharge. You look, you've hit your target with a high degree of accuracy.

I know this is a "guy" type of article and there are all sorts of analogies I could use, but the question remains, 'does your vision for life have a tight focus...'

In Christ?!