Aim Small, Miss Small

There is a scene in The Patriot where Benjamin Martin (played by Mel Gibson) is coaching his son how to shoot a musket and kill Redcoats. His instruction is simple and has remained in the ranks of my memory hierarchy with occasional resurgence: Aim small, miss small.

This concept refers to much more than marksmanship. If you think about it how could you accomplish ANYTHING without a little focus, right? Christ calls us to focus: And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him (Col 3:17). Christ is always calling us to excellence...in our relationships, labor, enterprise, hobbies, rest, speech, thinking, our worship, etc, etc, etc.

Self-help writer and public speaker, Tony Robbins says, "Most people have no idea of the great capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of out resources on mastering a single area of out lives." So are you shooting from the hip at everything that moves or do you have your crosshairs set on a button on a coat? The more focused you are on a particular thing in our life the more excellent that things will be. Logic demonstrates that to focus on a few certain things will require that we relentlessly ignore lesser things.