Targets and Goals-Part 1: Setting the right target

When I was a kid I remember being enamored by those karate demonstrations when we'd see people use various parts of their body to bust apart pine boards.  I thought, "it would be so cool to do that."  But I didn't have much hope that it would ever happen.

I think my hand would break doing this
Photo by Andrew Semprebon

Back then I was pretty much the antithesis of athlete.  I lacked coordination. I did a lot of walking and some ice skating so my legs were okay.  But upper body strength? Let's put it this way--while my classmates boasted about lifting beyond their body weight, I figured I'd be luck to push the empty bar off my chest.

So how was I ever going to bust a piece of wood with my hands?

And yet I found I was able to bust through 3 boards.

It's all about having the right target.

You gotta figure that if you wing your hand at a piece of wood, something's gotta suffer.  So you have to decide if it's going to be the board or your bones.  And if you have a piece of wood and you aim at the center of it, something may well break, but probably not the board.

I learned the secret from a friend who was taking karate lessons.  His instructor would grab some pine and hold it in his outstretched hands about head level and tell his students to "aim for my face".  (Apparently, one student was particularly good and actually busted through the boards and hit the guys face.)

You see, if your object is to just hit the board, then aiming for the board is fine.  But if you actually want to bust through the boards, you need to aim for the other side.

As we enter the last year of our second term with MB Mission, it's time to think about our goals for the next term and our path to getting there.  If we don't get the goal right, we'll just end up hurting our hands.

for we aim at what is honorable not only in the Lord’s sight but also in the sight of man.
(2 Corinthians 8:21 ESV)