We went axe throwing last night. Yes, it’s a thing. Somehow, someone thought it a great idea to mix alcohol and folks throwing battle axes around. Go figure. But it wasn’t bad. We all made it home in one piece. It got me thinking though.
Axes are potentially useful or dangerous or both. A man – his life – is also potentially useful or dangerous or both. Axes can help provide firewood or timber for building a house. They can serve as a protective weapon against wild animals. And they can be a deadly weapon in a battle. But unless you’ve had lots of practice, throwing an axe at a target generally results in something a bit off the mark.
Same with a man’s life, only worse. At least when you are throwing an axe at a target, you know what you’re aiming for. Not so often the case with our lives. We don’t know what our lives are for, we don’t know what they should be aimed at, and we often don’t know the difference between a good and noble purpose for our lives and a destructive and dangerous one. No great surprise that our lives fall short of the mark. That’s what the Bible says too. “Sin,” or missing the mark, is the sad commentary on how mankind lives out our days.
To master the art of axe throwing you need others who have some experience to show you the ropes. If you could be trained by one with perfect skill, even better. Men need other men that at least know how to live noble lives in work and marriage and family and community to help point the way to the things we should be aiming at in life. But even more, we need the perfect Man, the one who hit the mark perfectly with His life to sharpen us and point us in the right direction. We need the Lord Jesus Christ to turn us around, to aim us at heaven, and to train and empower us so that our lives hit the mark and fulfill their given purpose.