Читать книгу Beyond the Horizon - Harry A. Renfree - Страница 61

February 24

The story is told of a young girl who, shortly after the end of World War II when target practice with a rifle was still in vogue, decided to try it. After the girl had fired a number of rounds, her instructor stopped her and said, “Young woman, you are coming perilously close to that light bulb.” (A lamp was hanging some distance above the target.)

“Why,” was the girl’s simple response, “that’s what I have been trying to hit.”

This incident might be seen as a kind of parable describing our world. Actually, the young girl’s aim was not really the problem, but the problem was that she didn’t know what or where the target was.

Many people of today are firing off in multiple directions in life, seemingly oblivious as to what or where the target or goal of life is. And what is worse—not bothering to ask the Instructor.

The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, sums up perfectly his version of life’s goal or target. His was a marvelous target, and his aim was good. He says:

I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal [or target] to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:10–14).

Paul places his faith completely in Jesus Christ, and hand in hand with Christ, he finds that the target or goal God has set for him is now within reach. He is going to keep pressing on, sure of reaching it.

A fine example for any who find himself shooting at light bulbs.