The Ross Rifle

A beautiful, graceful, and highly accurate long range rifle, the Canadian designed and manufactured Ross was a work of art and a joy to use. In some circumstances.

Sadly, though, the Ross was a disaster in the muddy trenches of World War One. Its precisely machined parts were highly susceptible to jamming by mud and sand, and its straight-pull bolt action, while a plus for a sniper, created blow-back risks for the soldier in the stress of the trenches. Canadian soldiers soon began throwing out their Ross rifles in favour of weapons seized from the enemy or from fallen British comrades. Ultimately the Canadian government equipped soldiers with the more prosaic but more practical Lee Enfield.

After the war, the Ross remained a highly desirable gun for target shooters, marksmen, and snipers and to this day is a prized collector’s item. But no Canadian soldier of the First War had a kind word for the rifle.

You and I are not unlike the Ross. Living within our Giftings, we are treasured, useful, and joyous, but when we allow ourselves to try to be something we are not, we end up unhappy, rejected, and sometimes even dangerous.

When we try to be something we are not and accept jobs and responsibilities for which we are not at all Gifted, we will not only fail, but we will harm others and find ourselves subjected to anger, abuse, and rejection. Our self-esteem is reduced to ashes and financial disaster is often not far behind.

The Ross was promoted by lobbyists and insiders with significant financial and political stakes. They, of course, walked away unscathed. In a similar fashion, there are all kinds of outsiders who will try to talk you into things where you have no business. “Take this course! Join this program! Come work with us!” they will say, “and your life will never be the same.” Well, actually, they may be correct, just not in the way they want you to hear it.

The safest and easiest way to avoid wasting your precious self on business and endeavours where you have no place is to focus, laser like, on the areas of life and endeavours for which you were born. When you’re living in the centre of your Giftings, why would you even think about wasting time on mediocrity or worse?