Thursday 21 May 2009

Men's Retreat

Recently a group of us went away overnight. We had a great time talking, worshipping, praying, eating and drinking and learning to shoot arrows together. I was struck (not by an arrow, thankfully) but by a number of other things. First that this grouping was mostly people who have joined the church over the last 12-14 months (fantastic!). Secondly, that we still need to form and develop relationships with each other and this kind of thing organised so well by Carl Good is a really good thing! Thirdly that we must keep the pressure up in our own lives as well as as a whole church to make sure we are clear about our target - that we have something to aim at. As we saw during our archery lesson if you aim at the bullseye you are almost sure to hit somewhere in the target. I see far too many people's lives that are targetless. We need to aim at something, we are designed to function in this way. Somebody once said that "we need a big vision, but a tight focus" - are we focussed enough?
As people with a heart for sharing God's love with those around us we are in what fighter pilots might call 'a target rich environment' - in other words there is no shortage of targets for the receiving of the good news - however we have to make sure we are asking the Lord to help us focus on the right target - the one that is being prepared by the Holy Spirit.
So often we are targetting the wrong things, pointing in the wrong direction or trying to hit too many things at once - the vision needs to be big but the focus needs to be tight. We need revelation from God because without it we don't work within the right restraints and if that happens, like an arrow released without control and thought, something or somebody could get hurt. Proverbs 29:18.

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