I have been playing golf for about 20 years now. If you added all the times I played up, it might equal the same as someone that has only played for 3 years though. I just don't have the time or the money to play as often as I would like. I love the game. There is nothing better than being out on a beautiful course on a beautiful day surrounded by nature and hopefully some friends or family. It is a great game. There are so many sermons from golf, but I will try to limit my remarks today to a few that I have been thinking about since my game last week.
One of the things that is so frustrating about golf (and there are many) is that no matter how good your swing is or how well you hit the ball, there are so many other variables at play that will impact the success of your shot. You have the wind blowing and effecting your shot. You have the slope of the fairway. You may even have a sprinkler head laying out there that you could not have seen from 250 yards away. But each of these things can play a major role in the success of your shot. I have seen guys hit the most beautiful shot off the tee and then when the ball lands it hits a rock in the fairway and bounces off to the left. On the other hand, I have also seen my Dad hit an ugly shot off of the tee on a par three, but it landed on the cart path, rolled all the way down the hill towards the green, hit a rock or something, kicked over toward the green and landed several feet from the hole. In that case, all of the uncontrollable variables worked to his advantage. There is a golf saying "It's not how you drive, it's how you arrive."
Why am I saying all of this? Life is like golf in some ways. For some of us, we try to hit straight and true and if it wasn't for the little sprinkler heads in the fairways of life, we would always be successful. Then there are some of us that seem to duff the ball off of the tee and then all of the cart paths and rocks in life seem to place our ball in great position. What is so funny is that when the sprinkler head causes our ball to hop up on the green in putting position, we celebrate the sprinkler head and might even thank God for it. But when that same sprinkler head knocks our ball out of bounds, we curse the sprinkler head and complain that they should never be put there.
How many times in life do we praise God for the variables that go our way and then doubt God's love when the same variables do not seem to work in our "favor."? I want to encourage you today to not be double minded but rather single minded in your belief that all things work together for good when we love God and believe in His purpose for our life.
There is another saying in golf that goes something like this, "All that matters is the score card in the clubhouse." In other words, no matter what good looking shots or bad looking shots got you there, all that matters is the final score. That's where God's grace comes in. You see no matter how badly I may feel like my game is going, ultimately I know that in the clubhouse of life I win because Jesus has already shot the perfect game and I get to turn in His scorecard. I have traded my unrighteousness for His righteousness. What a thought! So don't let your game get all bent out of shape because of the variables that are out of your control. Swing strong and confident knowing that in the end...you win!!!
Why am I saying all of this? Life is like golf in some ways. For some of us, we try to hit straight and true and if it wasn't for the little sprinkler heads in the fairways of life, we would always be successful. Then there are some of us that seem to duff the ball off of the tee and then all of the cart paths and rocks in life seem to place our ball in great position. What is so funny is that when the sprinkler head causes our ball to hop up on the green in putting position, we celebrate the sprinkler head and might even thank God for it. But when that same sprinkler head knocks our ball out of bounds, we curse the sprinkler head and complain that they should never be put there.
How many times in life do we praise God for the variables that go our way and then doubt God's love when the same variables do not seem to work in our "favor."? I want to encourage you today to not be double minded but rather single minded in your belief that all things work together for good when we love God and believe in His purpose for our life.
There is another saying in golf that goes something like this, "All that matters is the score card in the clubhouse." In other words, no matter what good looking shots or bad looking shots got you there, all that matters is the final score. That's where God's grace comes in. You see no matter how badly I may feel like my game is going, ultimately I know that in the clubhouse of life I win because Jesus has already shot the perfect game and I get to turn in His scorecard. I have traded my unrighteousness for His righteousness. What a thought! So don't let your game get all bent out of shape because of the variables that are out of your control. Swing strong and confident knowing that in the end...you win!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment