1. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. 2. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. 3. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. 4. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. 5. The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. 6. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. 7. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. 8. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore. Psalm 121

My youngest son has shot trap, skeet, and sporting clays competitively since the age of 10. It was interesting to watch him learn to focus intently on a goal and work to achieve it. For a time we traveled to Alabama to take lessons from an instructor who had experience with young people competing in this sport. The most important thing he tried to teach his shooters was that the eyes were the key to success. If the gun is mounted correctly and the same every time, if they would just keep their eyes on the target, the gun would inevitably move there as well. It was good to take my child to a confident coach who also loved my Savior. His teaching often included references to the fact that God made our bodies in a way that allowed us to trust them to perform as they were designed. My son was encouraged to relax, and just keep his eyes on the target.

For the last few weeks, I’ve taken my eyes off the target.

When God drew me back to Him in such a real and tangible way, I was blown away by the power of the experience, the happiness in my life that followed, and the energy I had to not only spend on my own study, but to also point others toward Him. I couldn’t imagine that He wasn’t drawing everyone I knew in the same way. I felt so unworthy of the experience, that I was absolutely positive that He had a great revival in mind for our nation. Of course, that revival hasn’t developed quite the way my human mind wished for. I’m ready, I’m sitting on go, I’m looking for His movement, but the truth of the matter is: His ways are higher than my ways. While I would like to shake people physically and proclaim, “Can’t you see!?!” God doesn’t work like that. He knows people so much more intimately than I could even begin to understand, and He also gives us one thing that in my excitement I’d probably take away: choice. God desires a relationship with us. And, he desires that we continue growing and deepening that relationship for our whole lives, but He doesn’t force us. We may have to suffer the natural consequences of unwise choices, just as we do in the physical world, but that decision is ours to make.

I have struggled lately, not because I don’t understand the depth of God’s love for us, but because I’ve been consumed with the desire to somehow ‘make’ others see Him the way I do. I realize now, that I simply can’t do that. I can tell others about what I’ve experienced, I can follow His lead in my service and I can worship Him with abandon in my life, but no amount of proclamations from me can ‘make’ anyone take their relationship more seriously. That’s something that will have to be dealt with between them and the Lord. Coming to this realization has been hard on one hand and incredibly freeing on the other. Hard, because I am so incredibly happy, I can’t imagine other people not wanting this, but now I am free to just enjoy my relationship. I can pray for my friends and family to search for a deeper connection with him, rejoice when they do, and trust God to move in the way that is best for all of us.

So, my job is to stay focused on Him. To keep trusting Him, worshipping Him, serving Him, learning more about Him, and keep Him in the middle of my sight picture. He’s got the rest of it covered.