Between the Eyes… A Perfect Shot and a Hard Lesson

I wasn’t sure who it was, I just knew they were the opponent and I had a shot. The paintballs I was firing were arcing so consistently that I knew I could drop one just over the hay bail they were running to take cover behind. So I kept shooting until I saw the enemy gun go up in surrender. Perfect shot!

As we left the field in victory, I cringed when I saw that my opponent had a defective helmet leaving her forehead exposed. My perfect shot had struck her right between the eyes, and the massive lump was already bruising. Ouch! I felt horrible ….. well I felt a lot of things….bad being one of them. Being a company event, I figured I'd better stay out of HR for a while......

How she felt was exactly how I felt while reading Ezekiel, which in my humble opinion is one of the most difficult books to churn through in all of the Bible.

"...warn them for me... (if) you fail to tell them... I will hold you responsible for their deaths...if you warn them to repent and they don't repent, they will die in their sins, but you will have saved yourself." (Ezekiel 33:7-9) 

This verse leaves no need for explanation. God is pretty clear. We are called to be watchmen and step in when we see things that are wrong. To stand idly by is almost as bad as if we were doing it ourselves.

That one struck me hard! I know I have failed at this from time to time and also know sometimes when I did step in, I didn’t handle it well. That recognition hit me between the eyes.

When God wants to drive home a message, He does it. I had a super early flight that morning and as I was driving on the dark, empty roads on the way to the airport, a song by Blake Shelton "Let Him In Anyway" came on the radio. It tells the story of a man losing a friend who wasn't the best behaved and he was praying to God to let him into Heaven anyway. He was afraid it may have been too late to help.

Our responsibility isn't to self, it's to all. If you love someone, don't sit idly by and watch them drive into a wall. Help them steer the car to safety. I can tell you many times in my life I felt like a crash test dummy and would be if not for the people who cared enough about me to grab hold of the wheel and hit the brakes.

We have a responsibility to each other, God makes that abundantly clear. And check your helmet while playing paintball and your heart while running through life. You never know when the enemy may take a perfect shot and hit you right between the eyes.