Lessons in Archery

            Archery is such a part of my life, and I really can’t explain why. There’s just something about wielding a weapon whenever you want and taking out anger and frustration on a target that appeals to me. It also provides the correct circumstances to think hard. No kids around; just me and God and the birds.

            When shooting, however, you can’t get too caught up in your thoughts. There are certain steps you’ve got to follow in order to hit the target successfully. They are as follows…

1.                  Knock your arrow, always pointing it away from people. Simple step, yeah, but if that arrow isn’t firmly attached to the bowstring, it won’t shoot right.

2.                  Assume the correct form. Always, always, always have your feet planted at least a foot apart and have your back straight. Then, stretch out the hand in which you are holding the bow. For righties, that will be you left hand, and for lefties, you’ll be holding out your right hand. Don’t bend your elbow. Keep your arm out straight. Then, with your other hand, reach across your chest to grab the bowstring. You will have to rotate your torso a bit for this, but try as hard as you can to stay as close to your original form as possible. Grab the string at the first knuckle of your index, middle, and ring fingers. Since I broke my finger awhile back, grabbing the string there still aches, so I tend to hold the string a little higher on my fingers.

3.                  Draw your string. Easy enough, right? Just remember to keep the arm with the bow straight, to not have your elbow to high, and to not hold your string back for over five seconds. (That creates too much tension in your arm and you won’t shoot properly.) Keep the correct form while drawing back the bow, and pull the string back to your ear or nose, whichever works better for you. Some people pull the string back and make their thumb touch their lip, but that often changes the way you shoot, so it is not recommended.

4.                  Aim down the arrow. Ugh! If anything takes a long time and is extremely frustrating, this is it. Well, ok, it only seems like a long time, but it’s really only up to a maximum of 5 seconds. Aiming is seemingly simple: close your non-dominant eye and look down the arrow with your dominant eye. It seems simple, but with so many things to take into account, (i.e. angle, wind, etc.) it’s not exactly child’s play.

5.                  Let your arrow fly. Simple… NOT!! As with aiming, there are so many things to be aware of. As you let the arrow go, your hand tends to move forward with it, helping it along. This messes up your aim and gives your arrow less force behind it. It will take some practice to avoid “helping your arrow”, but it certainly is rewarding to avoid this mistake. Another common thing that archers suffer from occurs in the arm holding the bow. When letting go of the arrow, do not relax or jerk your arm! Ok… at least until your arrow is in the target. Many people, especially beginners, relax their arm too soon or jerk it some direction while the arrow is speeding out of its place. This again messes up the aim. But practice makes perfect!!

Now you can just buy a bow, a target, and some arrows and go shoot. ;)

However, before you do that, I have a life lesson for you. Cue the sighs. I know, but I will only detain you a little longer.

I just went through steps to successful shooting but also said that archery provides me time and conditions to do some hard thinking. I know: thinking is dangerous. But this time, it actually proved beneficial for me.

Sometimes, when I walk through the steps and hit the bullseye on one round of arrows, I tend to think, “Oh, I got this,” and then rush through or skip steps the next round of arrows. At first, that seems fun, but then, when I don’t hit the target, it’s not fun and makes me sad and angry. See, sometimes in life we do the same things. Occasionally, something may happen, and we might say, “Okay, God. I’ve got this. I don’t need You and Your rules.” And then we fail. Sometimes miserably.

But guess what? Even after the millionth failure, even after we push God away countless times, as children of God, He still wants us and will use our failure to see His perfectness. He teaches us that even at the times that we seem to be unstoppable and “on fire”, we still need to walk through what He’s told us every single day and never push Him away. Does that mean we’ll always do that? No. We won’t always go through the steps of archery either. (And probably won’t be like Robin Hood either.)

             But that does mean that He will never leave or forsake us. That He’s interested in us learning and following Him. The Holy Spirit abides in us, helping us walk through all the various “steps” that God has for us. What a blessing! The end goal? Heaven. Perfection. Life in His presence. That seems pretty awesome and mind-blowing to me!

             Look to Him. Listen to Him. Remember what He taught you