Well today is Friday and many have looked forward to it all week. As we look to the upcoming weekend there are probably some out on the golf course right now. Add to that the recent run, and recent falter, of Tiger Woods and it seems that golf is on the minds and in the hearts of many. Locally there is suppose to be rain on Friday, and some over the next few days, so the golf courses are probably going to be swamped with water not players here for the next few days. I guess that is a good reason to go to the UT game versus Marshall.
Enough about local weather and on to today's note. For those that do not know, I do not play golf, never have. Sir Gooney's, Putt Putt World, and Celebration Station are about as close to a difficult back nine as I will ever be on. This personal gap in experience however has not overcome my habit of trying to look at everything in life and learn something from it. So, today I have a golf based / inspired note.
My old roommate was a recreational duffer. He played about 2 to 3 rounds a year. I do not think he ever broke 120, he played with second tier balls, and his clubs were old to boot. Yet with all of that against him he loved golf, and always looked forward to his next round. About the time we were sharing a apartment there was a high school phoneme named Tiger that was showing signs of promise. One of things my roommate told me about Tiger was his incredible ability to "grip it and rip it". I am sure you know more about that then I, or that my roommate would ever know truthfully, but that is the basis of what is on my heart today.
There are times when God calls us to stop looking at the shot, stop evaluating the angles, stop analyzing the hazards, and just let it rip. After God has given us a vision, given us a call, pointed us in a direction, it is now time for us to act. I am not talking about reckless abandon, what I am talking about is taking the action that we already know that we are called do and putting our all into it without waiting any longer to find out where all the problems and issues will be. Many Christians make it through the vision, the call, and the direction phase of following God, but never follow through with the action.
God wants us to act in His accord. He knows the risks, He knows the dangers, and He says He will guide us through them and help us survive all that is before us. God does not know fear. Fear is a human emotion and one that is rarely worthwhile. God is not afraid, and nothing in the universe scares Him. He is not weak and powerless against His enemies. In reality, God is far from the feeble old man portrayed in comics, movies, and books.
We are on God's side. We are on the side of the creator of the universe, the Alpha to Omega, the beginning and the end, the beginning of and distributor of wisdom. He promises to never leave us nor forsake. Those that are called by His name will not perish in vain. If we are in His hand we can not be stolen or taken. Those things alone should empower and encourage us to act. God is our protector, so we should have nothing to fear. Fear makes no positive changes, it accomplishes nothing good, and in reality all it does is take energy and focus away from the action that really needs to be taken. So by definition the fearful Christian should not be the norm, but the exception. It should also be the exception that drives us back to a deeper relationship with God not away from Him, His work, and the duties that we are called too.
So, I challenge you, as I challenge myself today, to no longer check all the angles and worry about the hazards when God has put a call and direction on our heart. In those times, when God is clearly leading and directly, we need to just grab the club / tool / opportunity God is handing us and let it rip. He knows where our swing / action / work is headed and He has a plan for us when we get to wherever it lands. Weather our shot is a 300 yard fairway drive, a 120 yard shot out of the sand trap, a 60 yard chip on to the green, or a 15 foot putt is not important. The important thing is God is leading us to take it and that is what we are suppose to do.
