"Golf My Way."

I enjoy a good game of golf. I don't’ golf as much as I’d like to these days but I still enjoy getting out on the course once in a while. As much as I like to golf I must say there were very few times when I left the golf course feeling good about the way I played the game. I usually left promising myself “I’ll do better next time”, which I believe, is the lure that keeps most golfers coming back week after week. The reason I would always feel bad about my game was I was looking at this thing in golf called the “scorecard”. That tells you how many strokes over par you played the 18 holes on the course. On most golf courses par is set somewhere between 70 and 72. Every round of golf I have ever played (unless i played alone) has been significantly higher than that. To shoot 30 over par was not an unusual day of golf for me. As I walked off the course day after day my scorecard was telling me something I really didn’t want to hear. I am a terrible golfer. But one day watching a broadcast of a golf tournament on television I realized I was using the wrong criteria for determining how good a golfer I really was. I was listening to the commentators remarks about the shots the players hit and heard the interviews of the players as they came off the course. In doing so I heard things like.

“He hit a beautiful putt, it just didn’t go in”

“That was a good shot, it just came up short”

Players would say in their interviews “I hit the ball solid all day but I just couldn’t get the ball to go where I wanted it to go ”

“I’m happy with the way I played, I just couldn’t get it to roll in the hole.”

Wow what a revelation. I was always under the misguided assumption that good shots, beautiful putts actually went in, but apparently not. When I hit a putt that didn't go in I thought ,for some reason, it must have been a bad putt. I never dawned on me that a good putt wouldn't necessarily go in. I'm beginning to see it's not how yo play the game it's how you talk about how you played the game that matters.

“Hal hit a beautiful putt, it just didn’t go in”

“That was a good shot Hal hit, it just came up short”

“I hit the ball solid all day but I just didn’t show up on the scorecard ”. I lost 10 balls in 10 holes but I hit it solid every time.

“I’m happy with the way I played, I just couldn’t get it to go in the hole.” Really, ME TOO!

All of a sudden I'm starting to sound like a pretty good golfer. I Sound like the pro's. Forget the practice green, I think I'll go home and re-read "Why Bad Things Happen to Good People." Subtitle, "Why good putts don't always go in."

Apparently, It’s not the score it’s how you feel about how you played that matters. Or is it?
As we all know, getting the ball to go in the hole is the whole point of the game and if you can’t do it in the amount of shots they say it should take (Par), you aren't a very good golfer. Unfortunately, there are no style points in golf for making solid contact with the ball or making a round ball roll nicely over the green.

Keep in mind, the people the interviewers are talking with are the losers. Being able to put a good spin on a bad game of golf does not change the final outcome. You didn't win. The winners are determined by the scorecard not by who felt they played the best.
Who wins at golf is not a subjective decision it is an objective one based on a scorecard.

Now I’m back to feeling bad about my game again, because I really should feel bad about it, I stink at golf at least according to the scorecard.

Isn't it amazing how we can justify ourselves - how we are good at making a terrible round of golf sound like we did everything right but the ball, or the course, the wind just didn't’ co-operate. But that is how we are getting in our society. It’s not the grade you get on your report card it’s how you feel about the grade you get.

Same is true in Christianity. There are no style points for trying to do the best we can with God. I try to love, I try to go to church, I try to keep the law, I do my best. I really did some good things last week that I feel good about. The way I treat people and the time I give to God makes me feel good about myself.

When we stand before God he is not going to ask us how we feel we did here on earth. The score card says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God Romans 3:23. The final verdict is already in, we are guilty, lost sinners who are terminally over par (short of being perfect) in God’s eyes and we have no one to blame but ourselves.

The only answer is Jesus Christ. Our only hope is (if I may use the golf analogy) to accept the fact that Jesus has played the game for us and he was perfect. He perfectly kept God’s standard (the law) and payed the penalty for all our wayward shots (sins) on the cross. We cannot add anything to what Christ has done. He said “it is finished”, all we can do is reach out with an empty hand, bringing our sin and nothing else to the cross and he will save us, He will forgive us every sin, past, present and future.

Those who seek to justify themselves, who hide their sin behind a good feeling may feel good about themselves here on earth, but when they go to the scorers table all he is going to look at is the scorecard. There will be no interviews at the judgement of God. We either hand in Christ’s score card (his righteousness) which we have received by faith or our own (our righteousness) which is filthy in God’s eyes. Where is your hope for that day?