September 9, 2009
I had the pleasure and privilege of golfing Pebble Beach a while ago – one of the greatest golf courses in the world. Spectacular scenery, challenging holes: an incredible experience. And, you know what? I shot par. Yup, I shot par at Pebble Beach. Pretty amazing eh?
Now, before you go thinking that I am an amazing golfer I need to tell you more of the story. I didn’t play Pebble Beach at Pebble Beach. I played Pebble Beach at a hotel in Seattle – on their golf simulator. I chose to play Pebble Beach out of more than 50 golf courses from around the world. If you haven’t tried out one of these simulators, they are quite extraordinary. You hit off of artificial grass towards a huge video screen that projects computer graphics of the course accurately simulated through the use of GPS. The computer is able to calculate the distance and direction of your shot as you watch the trajectory of your ball on the screen. Your ball lands, you check the hole coordinates on the screen, pick a club and hit again. I found putting the real tricky part, but you know what they say, “Drive for show, putt for dough.”
There was one other part of the computer simulation that was particularly helpful for me to shoot par. It’s called the Mulligan button. After every shot I had the choice of keeping my shot, or pressing the Mulligan button on the computer screen and shooting another shot. I could choose to not have that stroke counted against me in my game. I loved that button. I must have pressed that button over 100 times. I would hit a shot that I wasn’t pleased with, press Mulligan, adjust my grip, my stance, my angle, and then hit again. I did this over and over again until my shots started to get truer and farther and I needed the Mulligan button less.
As I was doing this I began to think that this is like repentance. In life I do something that isn’t good – my shot goes astray. So, I ask the Lord to forgive me and to help me to change – to hit truer next time. Then I take some sort of action to ensure that next time I “hit that shot” I get a better outcome. You see, we are called to a life of repentance. Repentance is a daily choice – a daily gift from the Lord to start again. It’s an ongoing gift of mercy and grace from the Lord to lay aside the sin that besets us and keep moving forward in the game of life.
Choose to live a life of continual repentance – an ongoing attitude to lay aside the sin that trips us up and press on toward God’s heart for us.
Hebrews 12:1
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
Strength and courage,
David