"But seek first [God's] kingdom and His righteousness..." (Matt. 6:33)I read something this morning that brought a smile to my face, but also gave me something to chew on for a while. And since I figured I shouldn't be chewing alone, I thought I'd share it with you too! It comes from a golf analogy, but if you're not a golfer please read on anyway...
I do like golf, though I haven't always. I grew up hating golf, in fact. (Hmmm, is that too strong of a word?... Nah!) But I was doomed when I married into a golfing family. My father-in-law golfed as did my brother-in-law. And so, my wife, a pretty avid sports fan herself (Yes!), also appreciates the game. And now, I've come to very much enjoy both watching and playing.
Now let me make this clear, I'm not very good. I'm doing very well if I break 100. (For you non-golfers, a good score ["par"] is 72. The lower the score the better.) While I have learned to not take myself very seriously on the golf course (though I do get pretty frustrated at times), I have over the years played with some guys who feel that they should be playing more in the league of Tiger Woods than they really do, if you know what I mean. I even once played with a guy who got so disgusted with his play that he heaved a club into the air that landed almost on an adjacent green, nearly hitting some other players. Fortunately - both for him and the other guys I was playing with, I think - he at least had the sense to leave the course for the day after that.
Okay, so that's the context for the illustration that I read today. The article had to do with a man who was taught by his terminally ill father to play "NATO golf." Rather than getting all bent out of shape by your ball taking an errant bounce or when you hit a severe hook or slice (again, for you non-golfers, while you may not know what a hook or slice is, you know enough from the context that it's NOT a good thing!), or when the divot goes farther than your ball does (which has happened to me!), NATO golf is played with a very different mentality. Rather than being consumed with having to play to get the lowest score possible, NATO golf is played Not According To Outcome. You don't play consumed about your score or how well or poorly you're playing, but rather, you go out to simply enjoy the challenge of approaching each shot to do the best you can. Then if/when your shot didn't quite go as you envisioned it, you simply go find it and figure out the best you can do with the next shot. You let the score take care of itself and even if you could sod your yard with all the divots you took, you've still enjoyed the beauty of the course and the time with your friends (or meeting new ones), as you played without being consumed with the outcome of the final score.
So the life lesson becomes clear. While I know we could take this too far (God does call us to fruitfulness as well as faithfulness), how liberating it would be if we could live NATO lives! That is, rather than being so consumed with the outcomes that we desire, we first seek God and His righteousness (His person and His purposes), with the faith and confidence that regardless of the outcomes, God is doing His work in and through us.
A caveat, again, is warranted. This does not mean we can be lazy. God calls us to diligence and to fervency in the labor of our lives. But we labor with all our might with the full knowledge that the outcomes are totally dependent on the Spirit of God. This NATO approach is dealing primarily with God's desire to liberate us from the "tyranny of self."
I think as an exercise in applying this lesson, the next time I go golfing, I'm not even going to take a score card!
I heard somewhere recently that there are two kinds of golfers: the ones on the PGA tour and the other hackers.
ReplyDeleteI’ve played on and off since I was about 16. My father played once a week or so during the summer with folks at work. I don’t think I am as serious about it as he was, but I don’t think he was serious either, He wanted it to be an enjoyable time, He realized he was not an Arnold Palmer. I think he enjoyed it when he saw me progressing at it. It really is a microcosm of how we are: Do we strive to get better, how serious do we play, how do we behave on the course, what do you do when someone is having a real bad hack day, how generous are you with the rules of golf (how many mulligans do you allow yourself and how many better lies do you give yourself.)
I try to enjoy it the best I can when I play. It is frustrating when the 4 out of 8 shots on a par 4 land “elsewhere”, but the one shot that you “make” will inspire you to play the next hole or the 1 par or birdie you make in 9 or 18 holes will encourage you to play the next round, or practice, or take a few lessons.
Would Jesus play golf? I hope so. I wonder to what extent he attempted to enjoy life during his time. We know Jesus wept but did he laugh? I try to laugh when I play golf instead of “cry”. There were some work friends of mine that used to golf in the morning before work, and I distinctly remember the 8th hole on a round of 9 when all four of us actually drove the ball a good distance and landed into the fairway. We started walking towards our ball and one of my friends said, “Hey, look at us! Walking down the middle of the fairway, not wondering where the ball went.” It was pretty funny at the time and maybe you had to be us to laugh about it.
I’ll probably play again sometime, but realize that if ever I had a shot at being in tier 1, that time has passed or probably not even acknowledged.
Don't know whether Jesus would be interested in playing golf or not, but I can say that yes, there is plenty of evidence that there were times when Jesus laughed... and I'm sure they were great laugh out loud, belly-hurting laughs at times. Would have been something to hear!
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