Golf and Jesus

I recently decided to pick up a new sport. Golf was always one of those things that my son and my husband played and if I’m being honest, I thought it was silly. Hit a tiny little ball out into a big giant field, go find it and hit it again… and repeat. Insert eye roll here.

Now that my kids are grown, I figured learning golf might be something fun I could do with my husband, friends and with my son when he visits. I bought clubs and dove in. I started taking lessons and joined a local ladies league.

Now that I’ve spent some time learning and playing the game, I realized that there are some correlations between golf and our faith journey.

When I first began, I was all in, excited and eager. I took the lessons, bought the clubs, shoes, clothes, hats, balls, tees, etc. Doesn’t that sound an awful lot like when we first get saved and we have that period of time of being ‘on fire’ for the Lord? We buy our bibles and get our Jesus t-shirts and listen to The JOY FM and make the switch to Christian music. Like my golf experience, we are all in, we get involved in a local church, make friends, and start the faith journey. It’s a fun and exciting time!

Now, the next part of the golf journey is a little different. I put in all the time and effort learning the game, going to the driving range, taking the lessons and practice, practice, practice. I think, “I’m ready” and I get out on the course and tee up that first ball, take a couple deep breaths and swing my driver. As you can imagine it was quite a while before the ball stayed on the fairway. I was hitting balls in the trees and water, never to be seen again! This experience reminds me of John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Jesus never said it would be easy to follow Him. At some point, as new believers, we experience trials and realize that it’s not easy. Following Jesus requires commitment and faith to stay strong even when the challenge seems impossible.

But then, miraculously, I started hitting better! Every once in a while I would get a par. I even got a birdie a couple times! Every amateur golfer will tell you it’s those shots that keep you coming back. I’m never consistent though. One hole I’ll get a par, the next hole I’ll get a triple bogey. I get so frustrated and want to throw my clubs sometimes! Isn’t that much like our walk with the Lord though? We do our best to be obedient and faithful and sometimes we see God’s blessings in our circumstances and we sing His praises and then only moments later, we fall into our old sin habits and mess things up.

Some days I go out on the golf course and get my lowest score yet, other days you would think I’ve never swung a club in my life. I feel like in my faith journey. Some days I am confidently walking with Him and other days I feel ill suited to be in His presence.

There’s a famous quote by Ben Hogan that says, “The most important shot in golf is your next one”. You can’t get back the last one. You can’t change it. It’s history. The best thing we can do is stay positive for the next one. We can definitely apply that philosophy to many other things in life. We cannot go back and undo the sins we have committed. All we can do is move forward in God’s grace and make an effort to repent from those behaviors that cause us to stumble. Colossians 1:10 says, “Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.”