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AVID GOLFER NO. 2 THE GOLFERS DILEMMA.

by ROBIN BOSCH  
12/02/2014 / Christian Living

Quite a few years ago when I was much younger I went to a golf professional for lessons. I felt that I needed to improve on my handicap. I was playing pretty consistent. Maybe I should be honest and rather say, constantly bad. To be kinder to myself it would be truer to say there was just no improvement.

It is quite frustrating at times because one finds oneself in a rut and you don't know what the heck is wrong. After all it's nice to enjoy the game but one also wants to improve and lower the handicap. You know what it's like, the old ego thing. Anyway I went to this chap for a few lessons. He looked at my driving action and my iron shots etc. He told me quite a few things.

After being taught after repeated strokes and swings with the various clubs, I felt confident that I had been corrected and just had to apply it when I played on the golf course. To be honest I never did the wise thing, and that was to take what I had learned and go back to the driving range and practice what I had been taught. I was eager to get on out there and play, as they say " just do it".

To my dismay when I eventually went on the course I played absolutely awful. I was so intent on concentrating on every move and action that I forgot how to play the game. I was tense and ridged and there was simply no flow to my swing action. The more I tried, concentrated, and meditated the worse I got. I over analyzed my swing; the way I pull back, the way I griped the club, the way I stood. Was the face of the club closed, or open? Was my head down? Was I standing correct? Was my elbow straight when I did my back swing? etc, etc. Oh! what a nightmare.

I concluded that when I played next time I would just play and to hang with everything. Was that the right approach? Well, yes and no. But for the moment it worked. I had to relax. Tension brought wrong direction and many other faults. I suppose I concluded, "Rome was not built in a day."

I came to the conclusion that, yes! golf lessons are good but those lessons had to be exercised on the driving range first, with repeated shot after shot until it was imprinted on my muscle memory. This meant that the whole of my body and mind had to be grooved, ingrained and saturated to play the shots. When I went out to play it would became second nature, so to speak. I had to put in the hard yards/meters, to convert that which I had learnt to become a reality on the golf course. It would then be a natural process and not "sweaty palmed" self-effort. This seamed contradictory but true nevertheless.

SPIRITUAL APPLICATION.
Life is not easy by all means and we all have quirks in our makeup that need to be changed. In fact to be honest we really need to realize the full extent of our broken and fallen nature. That is why the Law of Moses was given. It shows us up in the true light of a holy and perfect God. The saying goes that a leopard cannot change its spots. That is true in the animal kingdom but not true for us human beings. We can change, but not by human effort and striving. We need a Professional to change our game.

Our old nature, which is a fallen one, cannot change. This old nature whether we like it or not was inherited from Adam. Something supernatural has to take place within me, in order for me to change and be the kind of person God intends me to be. Jesus said to Nicodemus that he had to be born again. (Jn.3:3) In other words he had to be renewed completely. This process has to begin when we accept Christ into our lives. We need to be renewed and recreated.The more I try to be better, the more I will fail. It's not about me trying to be good, turning over a new leaf, or making a new resolution or even trying to be a good Christian. No! I need to be made "new."

The more I concentrate on and focus on myself to bring about change it will only end in disappointment and desperation. I have no choice but to cry out, who will deliver me? Who! can deliver me? I need to be made new. I need to change. I so want to change for the better.

The Good News is, Jesus died on the cross and fulfilled the whole requirement for me to change. He said "it is finished". When I accept Him then I am made right with God. I become the righteousness of God. (2. Cor.5:21) For it says in the scriptures" if any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are made new.(2. Cor 5:17)

Christ Jesus is now my Professional. I turn to Him each moment of the day. I am instructed daily by reading the manual, the Bible. I am to exercise myself, but this time, unto godliness.(1. Tim.4:7) I am to practice moment by moment so that the Word of God will dwell in me richly.(Col. 3:16 ) This exercise develops spiritual muscle, powered and generated by the Holy Spirit who has become my Teacher in all that pertains to life and godliness.(2 Pet.1:3 ) If I read into the perfect law of liberty I will be liberated/changed from glory to glory, "effortlessly".(2 Cor.3:18 ) His nature becomes my nature, as I exercise that which is already residing in my spirit i.e. The Holy Spirit. Christ's Spirit then flows out from my spirit, to my soul and my body.

Praise the Lord this is called Grace. I live the perfect life when I abide and absorb the Life of Christ into my whole being. What does the Instructors manual say? Let's read, [Rom 12:2 KJV] " And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Amen

I have been a believer in Christ for many years. It has only been in the last three or four years that I have received greater insight into the Grace of God. This has injected me with energy to tell others about the blessed "rest" we have in Christ. Grace is not a theology but is a Person-- Jesus.

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