Today is our local school Archery Team’s annual Archery Tournament. We have students of varying skill levels competing against hundreds of other archers, all seeking to get do well individually, but also to contribute to their own team’s overall score. Each year, there are some students who just don’t get it. They pick up the bow and shoot willy nilly, hoping for the best. Some try very hard, but the concept escapes them, so, try as they might, they don’t hit their intended target as often as they like. Some are more concentrated, seeking to hit as high a mark as their skillset allows (out of 300), and are the hardest on themselves when they don’t score big. I think this is really a good reflection about how people go through life.
There’s people in life who just go through life willy nilly, no aim, no real direction, just hoping to hit something. Some people are trying the best they can but don’t seem to be able to hit near the mark. Others are perfectionists, who face big disappointments when they don’t hit their goals. All of us do not hit the mark with the accuracy we need to feel content. That’s why we need Jesus. He was the only one to do life well. To be perfectly content, because He, one hundred percent of the time, lived in the Father’s will. We stray from our purpose often, and, even when we strive for perfection, it’s always beyond our reach. Jesus, however, is lived the life we could not, and , instead of accolades for his perfect life, reaped the reward we all deserved in his death on the cross. Though His aim was always true, He took our penalty upon Himself so that we might be reconciled to the God who set the rules. He rose again that we might all be champions in His victory over sin and death. We should strive to aim well, but the only victory is when we strive for Him. It is in Him we have security, peace and contentment, and in Him only we will finish well.
John 14
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.
