Hitting the mark...

I've been thinking this morning about something I heard on Sunday about the nature of evil and sin. Dave defined sin (as many others do) as "missing the mark" but expanded the picture a bit. If "the mark" is everything good that God has for us (love, joy, peace, abundance, etc.), then missing the mark brings on isolation, misery, and shame.

Beyond some situations in my own life where I know there are specific things I need to recalibrate myself on, it also made me think about the communal aspect of "missing the mark". How does missing the mark collectively affect us? Affect others around us? It seems that isolation and misery end up being experienced on a grander scale, whether we're the ones causing that for others or others cause that for us.

That made me think of something that was curious for me at the time, but makes more sense now. We had been in Pardieu for a couple of days, and I was starting to ask myself why I was there. I knew what got us there, but I was feeling the "I don't speak the language, I'm not doing anything practical; what DIFFERENCE am I making here?" What I got in response was a sense of joy. In that moment, it seemed like God was saying, "I'm glad you're here! It's good you're here. You're hitting the right mark."

While I still don't know what long-term impact, if any, we had on that community, it's good to know that moving in the right direction brings those things God wants for all of us.