STRAIGHT SHOOTER LEADERS
Here’s a visual aid to show you how to be a straight shooter for your personal life and as a ministry leader. I have a ’73 Winchester rifle hanging in my office and I actually pick it up and use it once in awhile. This particular .44/.40 caliber Winchester rifle was sent from the factory in March 1881, according to my records.
I write a lot of western novels and I like the ‘73 repeating Winchester, the kind of rifle that tamed the West. And I like the caliber .44/.40 because it’s the same caliber used in Colts too. In fact, you could use the same bullet in your revolver and your rifle. And when I’m writing about a western hero, it makes sense to have them use the same bullet for either gun.
In the midst of that big obligatory fight in a western novel, you don’t want a guy hunting for which bullet goes where. So, since my heroes carry ’73 Winchesters, I bought this one to take out and fire because I want to know what an 8 ½ pound rifle with a 24-inch barrel feels like. And I want to know how much smoke comes out the end when you fire it so I can write an accurate account.
Winchester Peep Sights & Windage Bars
This particular rifle sold for $25 in 1881. It costs a little more now. I have an unusual feature on this rifle. It’s an upper tang peep sight on the back. You have to special order it at $10 extra. This sight has some spec
ial features—a vertical adjustment to raise the sight up and down and a special eye cup that can be interchanged according to the amount of sunlight. It also has a windage bar to adjust back and forth.
The sight is good up to 900 yards. Now, that’s more than the power of the .44 caliber bullet with .40 grains of powder. Although, if you mounted the sight on a .50 caliber Sharps, you could probably get 900 yards. My repeating rifle was center fire and very successful for Winchester, the gun that came West from 1873 on, both the rifle and the carbine.
Straight Shooting
This rifle illustrates the straight shooting you and I should have in our lives as individuals and leaders. I think we can find in this rifle and sight five things to remember about what it is to be a straight shooter personally, and as part of a ministry staff.
Here’s the first thing to learn from an upper tang peep sight. If you want to be a straight shooter . . .
1.) Aim at something.
You need a target. That’s obvious if you go out hunting. A hunter 100 years ago with a Winchester repeating rifle, to hit anything had to aim at something.
What are you aiming at? What’s the target of your life or ministry? If you don’t know, you will probably stumble from one catastrophe to another.
From one calendar year to another, you can fall into a predictable routine. I know that as a writer of books and as a pastor. I tend to do certain things at the same times. This verse helps to guide me, to find my aim at what’s important.
Ephesians 4:3, “Become mature in attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
I want to be more and more like Christ. I can line up my life to His and see if I’m getting any closer or not. That’s my target and I can compare with what I was last year.
2.) Minimize the distractions.
The little round things called eye pieces on the sight help to eliminate the distractions. The hunter sees only the game. Everything else disappears. And if the sun’s real bright, you put in a smaller hole. If there’s lots of dust, you use a larger piece. The purpose is to clear out diversions.
To be a straight shooter, identify and minimize those things that draw you off the target. And that’s the challenged. Do you know your target? Until we know that, we won’t recognize what truly draws us away.
Sin, of course, hampers reaching any godly target.
Hebrews 12:1, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
Several chronic situations beguile us. First, the specific temptations that entangle you and from which you need to escape. If you refuse to deal with the sin to which you’re prone, you’re not going to be able to shoot straight.
More Straight Shooting Oppositions
But also, other kinds of things easily careen us off course. These might not be harmful, but they keep us from reaching the goal. The clearer our objective, the more easily we recognize the detractors.
For instance, at any brainstorming session, lots of new ideas float around, but some you don’t need. The clearer you have in mind your end goal, you’ll know what best to try.
I’m constantly being bombarded by literature and people telling me as a writer how I need a new computer program. You know how it is, every other year Microsoft makes a billion dollars by selling something new. And I can’t write without it, they tell me. But the amount of time it takes me to learn a new program becomes a huge nuisance. I don’t need that when I’m focused. Maybe the same thing’s true for you. Cut the extras.
3.) To be straight shooters, adjust the windage bar.
We call that the horizontal sights, to be moved back and forth according to the resistance factor.
Somebody asked, how long did it take us to drive here to Cannon Beach, Oregon, from Winchester, Idaho? It took around eight hours. But we gave ourselves about nine hours in anticipation of weather resistance. For instance, at 12 degrees and snowing hard when we left home, we didn’t know what to expect on the road all the way to Portland. It snowed until the last six miles, then shined sunny all the rest of the way. But we didn’t know that when we started out.
Sometimes unexpected delays try to throw us off track. That’s the way it is in this world.
Jesus said in John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Straight shooters understand you’re going to have hassles and troubles and you’ve got to make allowances for that. If you’re going to hit your target, you’re going to go through tough times. Targets get missed when resistance isn’t figured in.
Goal setting often happens at leadership planning retreats. It’s also a prayer session in the midst of lots of sharing and envisioning big dreams. Then, you go out to activate those divinely appointed ideas in a real world of spiritual and physical pushback. To be straight shooters, adjust those horizontal sights, that windage bar, for the resistance sure to come.
4.) Also, adjust the sight elevator or the vertical.
When you mess around with the little screw on top of the upper tang on the peep sight, you can raise the entire unit. Of course, the more you raise the unit, the more you lift up the end of the barrel, and the more you can shoot a longer distance.
Also adjust your relationship with the Lord. Ask, seek, knock higher and higher. Maybe your targets and standards are too low.
Hebrews 12:2, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Matthew 5:48, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
As I mentioned earlier, one of the goals I aim for is to be like Jesus. Many would say, “That’s a pretty high goal, even impossible.” And a lot of folks who know me well would say, “Hey, Bly, you definitely have a long way to go.” Which is true. But Jesus said, “Be perfect. Aim high.” We don’t get a big, fat, easy target. Takes a lot of practice, determination, and depending on Him to make the good shot to get us there.
5.) If you want to hit the target, pull the trigger.
Some folks know how to plan and brim with great ideas, but never get anything done. They don’t follow through. Pull the trigger. Do something.
James 1:23, “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.”
Being a straight shooter is a goal in my life. I don’t know all the things my boys will say about me when I’m gone. Our oldest, Russell, is 32. Our second, Michael, is 29. And Aaron, our youngest, is 16. And someday these boys are going to be the oldest in the Bly clan. I’ll be gone and I’m not sure what they’re going to remember about me. But I’m hoping they’ll say, “Dad was a straight shooter. He did what he preached.”
Now, there are three important things to remember about straight shooters. This goes for personal lives and ministry leaders of all sorts.
First, all the straight shooters are dead.
You do not earn the title until you’re gone from this earth. Keep striving, but you haven’t attained straight shooter status until you cross over into glory.
You may have been toeing the line for thirty years. That’s wonderful! But you’re not through. You’ve got to reach for the end. Your staff has to keep it up. Your church or camp or conference center might have a glorious history of ministry and spiritual power. You’ve been straight shooters for decades. But you don’t earn the title until you’ve completed the task to the finish line. Do as Paul did, keep on pushing forward (Philippians 3:12-14; 2 Timothy 4:6-8).
Second, you only know how straight you shoot when you’re receiving incoming.
There’s a great scene in John Wayne’s last movie, The Shootist. He plays an aged gunfighter at the turn of the last century dying of cancer. And a young man, Ronnie Howard, who plays Lauren Bacall’s son, is fascinated by legendary gunman, J. B. Books.
So, Ron Howard walks along with John Wayne and tries to learn the clues it takes to be a gunman. John Wayne says he’ll take him out to learn to shoot. They go behind the boarding house in Carson City, Nevada, and aim at an aspen tree. John Wayne fires away five shots, all clustered good from thirty feet away.
Howard takes his revolver, points at the tree, and also fires five shots. “Hey, I almost had them clustered as good as you,” he boasts. John Wayne looks at him. “Kid, it don’t count unless they’re shooting back at ya. You don’t know how good a shot you are until the bullets fly your way.”
Times of Testing
There’s an old western saying, “Just ‘cause a man hasn’t had a chance to steal don’t mean he’s honest.” And if we’ve never been tested doesn’t mean we’re straight shooters. It’s what we do under fire, what we do when the pressure’s on, what we do during major stress. “I’ve been under a lot of stress lately. I’ve been really tired and haven’t felt well. Everything seems to be falling apart around me. That’s why I reacted the way I did.” However, that’s your very opportunity to prove you’re a straight shooter.
Third, you can start to be a straight shooter right now.
I love that. You don’t have to go back and get everything right before you begin. Just get up, dust yourself off, and practice shooting straight, starting this very moment.
Or you might be smack dab in the middle of the straight and narrow path you’ve been on for decades. And that’s great. Continue on that path. Or you might have wandered off some detour. You might be way out in left field in your own personal life. It doesn’t matter where you are.
Determine with the power of the Holy Spirit to shoot straight from now on. I think the Lord needs more followers like that to accomplish His Kingdom plans. Especially dads and moms, families and churches, and ministry outreaches everywhere.
Stephen Bly
Circa 1996
** NOTE: Find the name of the last western novel Stephen Bly wrote hidden somewhere within this blog, send the title to janet@blybooks.com and receive a free copy of the novel!
Target Image by Giovanna Orlando from Pixabay
Distractions Image by Richard Duijnstee from Pixabay
Storm Resistance Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
Goal in Magnifying Glass Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Bulletin Board Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Steps 1,2,3 Image by Rel Lerrio from Pixabay
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“How To Be a Straight Shooter” audio podcast by award-winning western author Stephen Bly. Recorded at Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center, for CCI, Christian Camping International Conference, 2-26-1996. Sponsored by BlyBooks.com Legacy Series.
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