How’s Your Dart Game?

Lunchtime Lift– A Weekday Spiritual Guide

Faith. Religion.

“It’s actually pretty simple, isn’t it?”

Yes! As a matter of fact, it is!

That was a question/statement heard yesterday after worship several times.

We explored the West core value, “All means ALL!”

And in doing so explored what the word “sin” really means and how, as a people seeking to love God and live out faith, we can live our lives so that they make a difference and actually lead people TO God instead of away.

Part of this experience was a little ball dart game. Instead of real “darts” we used balls and threw them at a little target where they could stick.

When you are competitively playing darts, you really pay attention to where you are aiming and you try really hard to hit the target.

In life, we do the same. We aim at the target of our faith, which is to live a life of Love.

Sometimes we miss, but we always keep aiming.

Missing the target of living a life of Love is the definition of “sin.”

Whether you are reading the Hebrew or Greek text, you’ll find that the meaning of the word “sin” is traced to “missing the mark.”

The aim for followers of Christ is to always have “the target” in our view and aim to hit it by living lives of Love to all people.

When we are playing darts, however, if we start looking away, getting more fixated on what is around us or what others are doing instead of how we live and manage our lives, we will miss the target significantly. It’s tough to hit a target that you can’t or don’t see.

The same is true of us in our faith journey.

When we become consumed with how others are living their lives and we enter into a “judgment zone,” not only are we missing out on a key teaching of Jesus (judge not lest you be judged), we also are getting our own dart game WAY off track. We will likely miss EVERY TIME if we aren’t careful to keep our focus and aim on our own path of love.

Go try to hit a target while you are fixated on a different one.

Throw a tissue or a soft object at a target you identify. You’ll see it is truly difficult to hit the target when distracted by others.

Then remember, as we seek to follow Jesus, our role is to live as he lived. To live a life of love – in all things, at all times, in all ways.

And yes, that means not being consumed with everyone else’s dart game.

The way to share the hope that life in Christ brings is by making sure our own individual dart games are undefeated and we always hit our mark.

Let’s try to aim for this together!

Grace and Peace,

Andrea