Aim Well
To hit the target, first aim.
Yesterday I asked the question, “What does it mean to be a Christian?”
Then I showed you the bull’s eye.
It’s the pure, simple, incredible idea that Jesus was crucified, died, and placed in a tomb sealed and guarded by Roman soldiers. On the third day he was raised from the dead.
That’s hard to believe . . . at first.
Then we look around and see things like crosses and churches and holidays all over the world. We see kindness and sacrifice, to include trying to spread a gospel message to strangers regardless the consequences in doing this.
Why have so many people since the time of Christ done such things?
Because Jesus told them to.
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.
And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Matthew 28:16-20 (ESV)
This is how the Book of Matthew ends.
Notice that some still doubted in spite of the fact they saw Jesus crucified, die, be entombed, and then come back to life and stand before them to speak the lines quoted here.
To have doubts, frankly, at least to me, is still understandable. In fact, it’s necessary.
Life tells me that death is permanent. I have not personally seen anyone come back from the dead, especially after three days. I also believe we must live in reality and play the hand we are dealt.
And yet there is also something in me that doubts my doubts.
Again to be honest, it doesn’t really make sense that any of this that seems real to me, including myself, should exist in the first place.
To say it’s all meaningless in light of the complexity of the innumerable systems that all must operate perfectly for life to exist is, in my mind, silly and requires more faith than to believe Jesus rose from the dead.
Sure, there is pain and suffering, real reasons to doubt both the existence and goodness of God, but there is also beauty, love, and this hope in a passed-down story about a savior who died so I might do what he did — rise from the dead, come back to life, and live forever, not in a fallen world like this with its pain and suffering, but in a better place and way than I can now — which, of course, is something I will not really understand until I get there. I think this is why faith is a necessary component for living a good life.
In Conclusion
The good life, the life well-lived, is the result of aiming well. It is correctly identifying the target and then living as if that one still point comes before all else. It is solving the mystery of the hidden treasure, the priceless pearl worth everything there is.
Putting the gospel first in our minds means that all other decisions will follow from it.
If Jesus rose from the dead for me, then what he tells me to do in this life supersedes all other voices in my head, including my own.
For this to be the case, I must learn and practice magnifying his story in my mind.
So, back to the verse above. There were doubts that what they were seeing was real, but there was also worship.
And what is the purpose, the aim, of Christian worship?
To magnify God.
What an odd concept. How can we magnify the invisible?
The answer, like the gospel itself, turns out to be very simple.
It is to focus our own imaginations, not on self, problems, schedules and the rest, but on God. It is to imagine his magnificence and splendor beyond all that we can see, hear, touch, smell, or taste. It is to ask for Divine help and power to live a life that will please both Him and us in the end.