At this time of the year, when we have the occasion to pause and look back (see my earlier post, No do-overs) and to look forward with anticipation of what the new year holds, a fundamental question that I  ask myself and I’d invite you to ask yourself is:  “What am I aiming at? What’s my target?”

Most of us have heard some version of this proverbial saying, “If you’re aiming at nothing, that’s exactly what you’ll hit. Nothing.” So, if you’re looking back over last year and are wrestling with regrets over missed opportunities, maybe the reason you didn’t hit your target last year was because you never took the time to clearly focus on a specific target. You didn’t hit it because you weren’t really aiming at it in the first place.

So, let’s not make that same mistake this year. Pick a target and focus on it. Don’t let your eyes drift all over the place. Keep on the target.

Great! So now what? What’s the target? For Jesus followers, I’d recommend what the author of Hebrews wrote in Hebrews 12:2-3:

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its same, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Notice, the target isn’t a what but a who. Focus on Jesus.

The word for “fix” your eyes on Jesus is an interesting one. It’s a composite word that means “to look away from one thing to focus on another.” In other words, to “fix your eyes on Jesus” means to intentionally ignore everything else that distracts us to easily so that we can lock on to Jesus.” It’s choosing to ignore everything else and riveting our focus on Him.

So, what happens when we lose our focus on Jesus? Exhaustion and loss of heart. When a marksman doesn’t lock on to a target and stay on it, he’ll miss every time. (That’s what my team mates chide me about on the trap and skeet fields after a miss. They’ll often ask, “Did you lose the bird?” “Yep.”)

Okay, so now I’ll ask you the question: Have you missed the target? What are you aiming at? Do you need to lock on to Jesus?  Take some time to observe how he interacts with people in the New Testament Gospels. Watch him. Listen to his words and to his heart.

So, my challenge for me this year is to refocus on Jesus so I can stay on target. How about you?

I remember watching Aron Ralston’s interview on the TODAY show on December 8th. Do you remember him? He was the young daredevil solo climber who 6 years ago fell into a crevasse while climbing in the Utah mountains. He dislodged an 800-pound bolder in the process that crushed his right arm, pinning him to the canyon wall.  After 6 agonizingly lonely days with no hope of rescue (because he didn’t tell anyone where he was going), he managed to extricate himself by breaking both bones in his arm and sawing through the remaining flesh and tendons with his dull multitool. Yes, and obviously he lived to tell about it in his book, Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

But what was he doing out there . . . all alone?

“The psychology of why I was doing the things I was doing is very complex,” he said. “A lot of it has to do with trying to fill up a void of esteem in my life and to accomplish things.” He went on to explain in an interview with the NY Times:

“It was the experience of risk for the sake of self-discovery. I had these insecurities of really if I was adequate enough, if I was good enough, if I was good  at anything. And then in order to feel something, I had to be in riskier environments.”

Aron pushed the limits of his climbing to try and find something riskier that would finally dislodge an empty craving deep inside and bring a sense of inner fulfillment. He thought mountain climbing would do that. It didn’t.

Many people do that. No, let me change that. All of us do that. Oh, you may object to that because you are not out there obviously risking death like Ralston by attempting to be the first man to climb all of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks solo . . . during the winter no less. No, not you. But could it be that you’ve simply chosen,  some lesser peaks?

For most of us, our “fillers” are less dramatic than Aron’s, but they function the same way. Things like accomplishments, awards, affluence, influence, accumulation of wealth, prestige, position, power, how well you marry, how well your kids are doing, how full your day planner is, or your little black date book. In the end, it’s all an attempt to fill an empty crevasse deep within that only God can fill.

A woman in the 1st century who was thirsty for more than water (thirst is another word for the emptiness inside that we crave to fill) sat at a well and listened to an offer from Jesus that sounded too good to be true:

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14).

What Jesus offered to her just wasn’t the best spring water around. It was the only life-giving water around. It wasn’t about water. It was about life. The real deal. And what’s so amazing it that Jesus is still making the same offer to us.

So, tell me, are you thirsty? Empty? What have you been using to fill your emptiness? Would you like a better offer?

“Who are you? Who, who…who, who?

The words strike me as more than a line from a catchy tune by the British band The Who. The lyrics actually raise a core question-do we know who we really are?

It’s an important question. And answering it is not as simple as rattling off the basic information found on our passport—name, address, etc. There’s a lot more to us.

For instance, the opening pages of the Bible tell us that we bear the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). The Bible also tells us that “we are God’s offspring” (Acts 17:28). In other words, who we are is wrapped up in being one of God’s kids. And those of His offspring, who have found forgiveness and restoration through Jesus Christ, can learn to walk in the peace and the joy and the purpose of a new life in Him (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Reading what the Bible says about us is truly good news. And I wish it were that simple. The problem is there are other destructive messages that come to us in various ways that compete with some of the things we read about ourselves in the pages of Scripture. As we’ve gone through life in a broken world, we’ve all heard lies that cause us to doubt who we really are; false messages that say we’re nothing or unwanted; half-truths that seduce us into believing there is something deeply flawed and unredeemable in us.

So…who are you? What are the messages you’ve heard? A lot is riding on the answers we end up with. If we don’t know what God really thinks of us, we will continue to live far less than who He intended us to be.