Lessons from Golf

Last summer I took up the game of golf. It has at once been one of the most joyful and difficult things I've done. It never ceases to amaze me how much the rhythm of golf teaches me about life. For example I have learned from golf:

1). Relax...if you are shoulders are tense the chance of you hitting a bad shot go up enormously. Likewise, when I go into an event, experience, worship service or meeting feeling all the weight of the world on my shoulders my words slice off like a golf ball right into the woods.

2). Look around. The whole point of golf in the upper Midwest is you get to be outside. That may sound a bit strange to our friends in the south...but winter here can drag on and on and on. Golf gets you outside and often with friends. Enjoy the shade of the tree or the warmth of the sun on your face, enjoy the laughter and someone else to smile and cheer when you sink a putt or stand silently by when you shank a shot...that is all part of leaning into life.

3). Practice...practice...practice. I've l;earning that golf is a game of training your body to move in a certain way and getting comfortable with that. It takes time. What surprises me about this learning is how often people expect to come into church after a whole week of living one way and expect that an hour will change all of that. It is like me expecting to go out once a month and hit a whole in one.

I was recently reminded of a great quote from To Kill a Mockingbird where the main character says, 'I can't live my life one way in my house and other way outside my house.' We can't live our life one way on Monday morning and a complete opposite way on Sunday morning. It just doesn't work. Sunday morning is practice. Which when you think of it is completely odd. Not many of us sing to organ music on Tuesday afternoon or pick up the Bible or listen to a sermon during the week. But maybe we should!

If every day was practice for Sunday morning...maybe our Sunday morning would feel, sound and be more meaningful and aware of the grace traces of God all around us.

Blessings