Front Sight Confidence

“I have set the Lord always before me.”  Psalm 16:8  ESV

I had a new perspective on something the other day and I so want to share with you all. It was one of those whoa things that’s given me a new perspesctive.  For some this post may be a bit odd, but maybe by the end you’ll see something, too.

So, you know how in my “past life” I had a gun on my side daily? To those that didn’t know, yes, yes I did. It was a tool of the trade of the uniform. It was my constant companion. And since then, I still keep one close and I work on staying proficient with it.

Well, well, did I have a new moment. The other day as I handled one yet again, I saw it! I saw Jesus in my gun.  Not figuratively of course, but I saw a connection.  I know, huh? Crazy as sin to say that. Crazy that a writer talking about faith issues is putting gun and Jesus together in a statement. To some, it just doesn’t add up. Well, to me it did.

Ok, so for those of you that have handled a firearm before you know it is all about working with your sights. It’s about bringing the back sight together with the front sight to have an optimum result. But there is a rule to it. This rule will always help you be more proficient.

What is it?

The rule is–drum roll please–focus on the front sight.
No earth shattering information, I know, but let me explain. Hang in there. A little technical stuff, but trust me, I do have a message.

On a firearm, generally, there are two sights—a rear one and a front one. When you align the two, you are at optimum vision awareness. But something happens in your vision when you do that. Your eye cannot focus on two things at once. Therefore, everything in the background becomes blurry. And when you are working with sights, that’s a good thing! Your focus is no longer directly on what you’re aiming at, but now on the front sight of the gun—the front of the firearm. Everything else should become out of focus.

Photo Renae Bowman

After all these years I finally saw the connection! And grant it, I don’t think you’re sitting around making gun comparisons to our faith—I hope not–but in this crazy brain of mine, I did. Boy, I did.

You see, confidence can be an issue for me.

Confidence of my faith.
Confidence of who I am.
Confidence of where I fit into God’s scheme of things.
Confidence in carrying out His work.
Confidence of how God will handle it all.

And I believe God is teaching me a thing or two. But He knows I’m a visual learner. He knows that for me, examples will always lead to answers. And the other day he sent me one—in a gun and a target. Who would have guessed?

And I’m wondering if you need it too?

You see I figured it out that I’ve been doing it wrong lately.
I’ve looked out at the world and all my problems and all my questions and all my turmoil’s, and they have all been in focus. I’ve been staring them down and giving them a lot of attention. I have stacked them up like empty cans on a fence for shooting practice, and have kept my eyes keenly on them. I’ve given them a lot of attention. A lot!

And I lost the clarity of the front sight, if you will. It became blurry when everything else became clear. So clear, that my focus and attention was on every minute detail of every problem and worry that I had. I had been reversing the very process I knew not to.

You see, Jesus is the point out in front of us that needs to be in clear view. When that happens, everything else beyond Him becomes blurry. It becomes the lesser of the two. It finds it’s rightful place.

Oh, life and trouble and turmoil are all out there beyond—yes, that’s for certain–but if we want a successful outcome, the front tip must become the bearer. The front sight must become what will be our success.

Jesus is our front sight.
Jesus should be in clear view.
Jesus is what will cause success.
And Jesus is what will never fail us…ever!

You don’t have to pick up a gun to understand this. In fact you can do a little exercise right now as you read this.
Hold your hand out directly in front of you as if you’re telling someone to stop—at arms length. Look at the back of your hand. Study your fingers, your fingernails. Did you see it? Did you see what happened to everything else in your vision in front of you? If you looked at the back of your hand, everything else beyond it became out of focus. The “stuff” was still around but it wasn’t your focus.

Dear friend, I know this is a crazy analogy and metaphor to our faith and our Savior but you have to trust me on this one. I spent decades training others and success always came down to what the eye focused on. Where that focus was, and to what degree, always foretold the outcome.

Our vision can’t zero in on two things at once—it is either one or the other. I, for one, have spent too much time lately focusing on the problems—the background. It is time to bring the clarity back to the right place—back to Jesus—back to the forefront of the One that leads the way.  May you and I find the confidence we need in our front sight!  When we become aligned with Jesus we will always have clear vision. In turn, our confidence becomes in the One leading the way. May we always set the Lord before us!