Philippians 3:9-14 (KJV) ^{9 (King James Version)} And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: ¹⁰ That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; ¹¹ If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. ¹² Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. ¹³ Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, ¹⁴ I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Olympian Misses the Mark:

Matt Emmons was just focusing on staying calm. He wishes he had been more concerned with where he was shooting.

Emmons fired at the wrong target on his final shot, a simple mistake that cost the American a commanding lead in the 50-meter three-position rifle final and ruined his chance for a second gold medal.

Ahead after nine shots and needing only to get near the bull’s-eye to win, Emmons fired at the target in Lane 3 while he was shooting in Lane 2. He had cross-fired — an extremely rare mistake in elite competition — and received a score of zero. That dropped Emmons to eighth place at 1,257.4 points and lifted Jia Zhanbo of China to the gold at 1,264.5.

“On that shot, I was just worrying about calming myself down and just breaking a good shot, and so I didn’t even look at the number,” said Emmons, 23. “I probably should have. I will from now on.”

A trained Olympian yet he missed the mark. How many countless hours has Matt spent practicing, taking shot after shot to perfect his craft? How many times as he shot at a target aiming for the bulls eye? But in the one moment that it matter the most his misplaced aim cost him a second gold medal in the Olympics. His shot was good enough to have earned an 8.1 had he hit the right target but instead it earned him no credit at all.

It is the same way with life. We can be striving to live perfect lives, keeping ourselves pure and living good lives but if we are aiming for anything other than being found like HIM we will miss the mark of heaven. Being like Christ is our ultimate goal. There is no other target worth aiming at if your goal is gaining the gold– streets of gold. Without a likeness to Christ we are only shooting bulls-eyes on the wrong target. It is not how hard we train nor how many shots we take it is where we are aiming that matters when judgment time comes.

Pouring our efforts into things that can not satisfy may make us feel like we are a success but in the end when being judged, if those efforts were aimed at the wrong target, then our score, like Matt,s, will be a zero.

It did not matter how many other shots Matt had taken at the right target. It was that one shot aimed in the wrong direction that cost him the gold. It could well be that you too have been hitting a lot of the targets you set for yourself in your life, but I have to ask you, are you hitting the targets God has set before you? Are you being conformed into the image of His Son? Can God see His reflection in you? Are you aiming at the gold or just shooting aimlessly through life?