Matt Emmons Misfires (Sermon Illustration)

We all have a target we are aiming for. And if you work hard enough, long enough, there’s a good chance you’ll hit it.

But I want to tell you a tale of caution.

Will Mancini, in his book Church Unique, tells the story of Olympian, Matt Emmons:

Matt Emmons was one trigger pull away from winning his second gold medal at the 2004 Olympics. In the lead position of the fifty-meter, three-position rifle competition, Emmons was so far ahead that his last bullet needed only to hit the target—anywhere. With unwavering calm and unbelievable precision, he fired his bullet and watched it pierce yet another bull’s-eye. But a few seconds passed, and no score lights appeared on the board. When three red-jacketed officials approached, Emmons was sure that the scoreboard was just broken. But it wasn ’t. He was in shock, when the officials informed him that he had hit the wrong target. While standing in lane two, he had fired at the target in lane three. That day, the officials awarded him a zero, and Emmons didn’t even place in the competition.

If you aim for a goal long enough, chances are you’ll hit it.

The problem is that many of us aim for the wrong goal.

I wonder how many of us will hit the target, but later in life, perhaps after its too late, realize that we were aiming at the wrong target?

Get your sights set on the right target now, because hitting the wrong target at the expense of the right one can cause more problems and regret than you think.

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Source: Will Mancini, Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision (Jossey-Bass, 2008), 151.

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