Golf is a sport of patience, tranquility, and focus.  So simple on the surface, most people who have never played before insist that it isn’t a hard sport, or it isn’t even a sport at all.  Professional golfer and US Open Winner Rory McIlroy describes himself as “hitting a little white ball around a field sometimes”.  When you look at it that way, it doesn’t get much simpler and perhaps this is one of the reasons Mr. McIlroy is so successful.  Golf is described as 90% mental and 10% physical.  Bobby Jones, possibly the greatest golfer of all time, once said that “golf is played on a 5 inch course-the distance between your ears.”  You see, there is nothing more liberating than striping a ball deep down the middle of the fairway setting yourself up for an easy next shot into the green.  As the white ball trickles down the short grass in the fairway, there is a great sense of security and assurance.  Yet when something goes wrong and your ball ends up behind a one hundred year old oak tree seemingly wider than the ocean, panic sets in.  The great golfers are the ones who aren’t controlled by their emotions, who never are secure in their performance, that never panic when things head south.  Their only security comes in their method, not the results.   

                While reading Golf’s Sacred Journey by David L Cook, I realized why I love golf so much and how awesome of a sport it truly is.  Living out faith in Christ Jesus, and a round of golf are similar in certain ways.  If you have never picked up a club to play, I encourage you too first of all!  It is fun and something you can play for almost your entire life.  Golf will teach you more about yourself than you’ll ever realize while building your character shot by shot.  If you have never truly accepted Jesus Christ into your heart, this is something you must do!  He will never leave you, and will continue the good work he starts in every one of us our entire lives.  God will teach you more about yourself than you know, because he is your creator.  Day by day he will renew us and grant us mercies to take on the day.  Ask him into your heart today and to change you!

Every round of Golf starts with a fresh start.  You sit at even par in hopes to minimize mistakes and to score well by the end of the round.  Each day you wake up, you start at even par as well!  As a Christian we must remember that each day is a chance to start over.  The Lord’s mercies are made new each and every day.  Dwelling on past sins, and mistakes involves zero belief in what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross.  Instead, we must accept his forgiveness, believe we are saved by what he has done for us, and ask him to turn us from those sins then trust that he will complete the work he has started in you.  Same goes for Golf.  If all you are thinking about at the beginning of your round is how poorly you hit your driver off the tee the past two rounds and that cut slice deep into the woods you had on the first hole last time, your mind isn’t in the right place.  In life, the right place for our minds to be is steadily resting on the Lord as it says in Isaiah 26:3.  This keep our minds in PERFECT peace.  Not temporary, conditional peace based off of performance or results but unconditional peace in our loving savior!  Seriously, this means that when our minds are resting in Christ literally nothing that happens can take away the peace that he gives to us.  Similarly in Golf, the right place for our minds to be isn’t on the outcome or the effects but the method.  Mistakes are made and unfortunate things happen, but if the golfer isn’t solely trusting in the result but rather putting their trust in the truth of the process they will stay at peace.

Funny story.  I play golf and have many odd experiences with the game, but one stands out in particular and kind of relates into the whole concept of things happening in life we don’t have any control over.  I was playing with a friend and my ball was to the right of the green about twenty yards or so on the opposite side of the cart path.  If you’ve ever played with me, you know I have an absolute atrocious slice so seldom am I on the left side of the course.  Anyway, about thirty to forty feet up in the air lay a single wire with the diameter the size of a water bottle cap.  Seriously, the thing was barely even visible, and I have no clue what purpose the wire served, but it was there regardless.  Unaware of the wire, I took a short swing lofting the ball high up into the air directly on line with the hole.  To this day I believe that shot would have gone in the cup if not for the wire clipping my golf ball’s flight sending it directly down into the cart path, launching it down the asphalt about 75 yards or so.  It was infuriating, yet hilarious.

The calmness and serenity Golf requires in order to be successful, is granted to us by Christ so that we can live for him.  The Lord says he gives those who believe in him peace, not as the world gives but as HE gives.  The peace that can’t be taken away, ever.  After all, one of his many names is Prince of Peace.  True peace, is only found in the resurrected savior.  The main difference between Golf and the Christian life is that at the end of one waits a finite score, but at the other waits eternal life with our creator.  Where does your peace come from?