First Love

“No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?”             Albert Einstein

Do you remember your fist love? I do. It was 4^th grade and I would ride my bike by her house everyday on the way to school and sometimes we would walk together on the way. But wait, this isn’t about that kind of love, I’m talking about sports. My first love is football. I know this blog is supposed to be somewhat about golf, but in sports, I think of football as one of the greatest team sports there is. When I was a boy I dreamed of being in the NFL. I remember riding my bike to the school or park and playing with friends or sometimes I would find games with kids I didn’t even know. I loved it so much, I didn’t care if I didn’t know the kids, I wanted to carry the ball. I thought about football all of the time. Even as a boy, I didn’t mind sitting down and watching a whole game.

With the Olympics starting this weekend, there is some excitement in the air. But the real excitement for me is the starting of the football season. Yep, that’s right, I’m excited for it. But that excitement is the beginning of youth football. I never thought I would enjoy watching football as much as I enjoy watching my son play. He happens to be a very good little player and is known by the other coaches and players. This is going to be a different year for him than in the past because he is now in middle school. It is now going to be all about winning for the most part. He won’t be able to take it easy as he has in the past. So now he gets to see what all of the running up and down hills that I have talked him into doing during the off season is all about.

Some of you may be thinking, “where are you going here”? I think a lot of us have been pulled away or even walked away from our first love. It could be a relationship or an activity. It could even be a career that you left for other reasons. Whatever it is, we went in another direction. I walked away from football in high school because I fell in love with motocross. Now, I’m not saying I had a shot at being in the NFL, but I did leave something I dreamed most of my childhood about for something that was more temporary. I understood in high school that I wanted to teach and coach football. But the thing that I walked away from that cost me the most was a relationship with Jesus.

I became a Jesus follower when I was 15, but once I graduated from high school, I decided to pursue wrong relationships and material things and turned my back on my relationship with the Lord. I was reading the book of Revelation a few weeks ago and as I started to think of my first love, I thought of what the apostle John wrote about while he was in prison. In the second chapter of Revelation John is being spoken to by an Angel and telling what the Lord is seeing. He cannot tolerate the wicked and detestable things He is seeing going on towards the end times. He tells John this in Revelation 2:4 “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.” The last verse was something I remembered when I finally decided to come back into His grace back in the 80’s.

One thing is for certain, all of us have had some kind of first love. But the important one is Jesus. If you are a person that has walked away from your faith and know that you are not where you need to be, it’s OK to turn back to Him. In the book of Luke 11-32 Jesus gives His parable to describe Heaven with the story of the “Prodigal son”. In this story a man of wealth has two sons, but one wants to leave and asks for his inheritance so he can leave and go do his own thing. But the young man runs out of funds and decides he had it better than he realized. As he turned back home, his father noticed him in the distance and ran to greet him. He told his servants to throw a party for his son, his son had come back home. Just remember that Jesus wants you to come home to Him!

Change!

After a few days of reflecting on last weekend’s British Open, I began thinking on a few different things. First, is how difficult it is to win on the PGA and the pressure to win a major tournament. Not to take anything away from Ernie Els, but Adam Scott lost the tournament more than Ernie won it. All though Ernie came in at -2 and most of the field finished over par, Adam had a big enough lead for most professionals to finish with the tournament in hand. But this is a major and the stakes are high and the pressure seems to be overwhelming. We see it many times on the tour, a man is leading a tournament and on day number four, “the wheels come off”! Second, is the mindset around the person winning and the thought process of the person leading a tournament. Then as the week unfolded I began to think of the tragedy that happened in Colorado. From the major fires that recently subsided, to the shooting at a movie theatre. What could be going on in an area that could cause some of these tragedies? I thought of the Columbine tragedy and the story surrounding that small community. I am not a superstitious person or someone who would believe in crazy wives tales, but I began think of the depravity of the heart of man. Where is the mind at when a person is committed to such an evil act?

Then a few things happened this past week that caused me to think in a more spiritual realm. The guys on tour have to have a certain mindset and sometimes lose their focus which causes the mistakes to end their tournament hopes and dreams. I was on my way to the gym early in the morning to workout. I just finished with my early morning quite time and was finishing in the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah had rebuilt the wall around the city of Jerusalem in record time. But he did something that most people that could not be done. He rebuilt the wall with people that were not a part of his “Tribe”.

What will it take to get our minds set on community? What will it take to change the hearts of men and women? Jesus said in Mathew 15: 19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” Only Jesus can change the heart. If we are to change the heart of man, we will need to have the heart of Jesus. Like any golfer that needs to change a swing flaw to become a better golfer to win a major or a tournament, we will need to go to Him to have our hearts changed.

Anticipation

Although Tiger has won three times this year, leads the money list and has raised himself back up into the world rankings of the #4 player in the world, it seems as though he just can't get back to where he once was. This week, during the British Open was no different. We saw times of the “old Tiger”, but again, it wasn’t enough. The golf world is waiting in “anticipation” for him to dominate, as he once did. The announcers, critics and experts are all waiting. Waiting for him to be what he was. His presence on the course still gets most of the attention, even when he is not winning. The “anticipation” for him to be “Tiger” again, is enormous.

As much as the golf world is waiting for that moment, there is another moment in time that will happen and it is with great “anticipation”. It is the day when the creator of the universe will return to earth. That person is Jesus! It is clear that the bible does not give a date when Jesus will return, but some people think they have figured out the dates and spend countless dollars on media adds and scare people with their prophesies. I find it odd that Jesus says a number of times in scripture that “NO ONE” knows the time, but so called “Christians” teach it and believe this false teaching. In Mathew 24:36-39 Jesus says, “No man knows about that day or the hour, not even the Angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father…” The New Testament is full of verses that clearly state this truth. Creation waits for that day with great “anticipation”.

I am anticipating the day of our Lords return, but I have a problem with it. Anticipation is somewhat an elusive reality that we live with. But God’s promise gives me hope. Unlike Tigers future, we are sure of Jesus’ future. If you are looking at the “Mayan” calendar or trusting in the “Horoscope” or looking at the “Stars”, look at the one who made the “Stars” and set them up for us to gaze upon. Jesus is the one! Hebrews 12:2 “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

You can’t always get want you want!

“The world is full of people looking for spectacular happiness while they snub contentment.” Doug Larson .

Do you remember that song by the Rolling Stones? I remember in high school one of my friends would tease his younger sister by singing that song to her as she dreamed about a certain boy that she had a thing for. We would laugh as other friends would chime in. It’s funny that he still will tease her at our age today, but in fun. That song rings in my head sometimes as I look at some of the new clubs out there. Every year the new clubs come out with the claim to add more distance and accuracy. I began golf back around the time Callaway first came out with the “Big Bertha”. I think that club started the marketing craze for golf clubs. After that and the emergence of Tiger Woods the golf industry exploded.

I find it funny that with all of the claims on the new drivers, how you can gain 15 yards with this particular weapon and so on. You would think buy now that with the added yards each year, the average person should be driving the ball 350 yards. . Unfortunately, that’s just not true. All the newer clubs are easier to hit and there are distance advantages, but there is a price tag. I hit everything that comes along every year and still don’t hit it any farther than what I have been hitting for the past 6 years. Our lesson today is “You can’t always get what you want”!

We can buy that new driver, but we may not gain any more distance. Unless, yes, unless you have a shaft that works better for your swing. Fitting is the key. My 6 year old driver works well because I have found a shaft that works for my particular swing and I am not willing to fork out the $500 and maybe get another couple of yards. I am seeing a world that thinks that we have to have the next best thing. I’ve noticed the better the golfer, the less they change their clubs. Of course unless they’re a person who just enjoys new clubs all of the time.

When I first started, I was trading and buying the latest greatest every few months looking for a better game. I learned the expensive way, “you can’t buy a swing.” We live in a nation that is driven by a “consumer mentality” and the rest of the world economies depend on our buying habits. After the 2008 economic crash we Americans experienced, the rest of the world had to adjust. I know it sounds crazy, but our economy effects the rest of the world. it’s true.

Many Americans are not buying new merchandise or just having less than we have become accustomed to, which in turn, effects other economies. Something you and I need to think about is how we spend our money. It not only immediately effects us, but it has immediate effects on others. This lets us know something about ourselves and others. Our checkbook is connected directly to our heart.

So where do we turn for proper advice on finances? Jesus spoke a lot about money during His time on earth. In the book of Mark 4:19 Jesus said, “But the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful”. If you are struggling to stay away from the next best thing, get in-line with scripture for help. God’s money management is the best there is.

Here are a few places that can help.
http://www.crown.org/
http://christianpf.com/money-in-the-bible/
http://www.daveramsey.com/home/

LIVIN’ THE DREAM

After watching some of the PGA on TV this weekend, I realized how hard it is to repeat on a weekly basis to win tournaments. But what is even harder is to repeat the same tournament a number of times. Steve Stricker was the favorite this week at the John Deere Classic. He was looking at win number four of the same tournament and he realized how difficult it would be. It has only been done four times and Tiger Woods had done it twice. I was surprised that I didn’t see Jack Nicholas on that list. It seemed to be the “ol’ announcer curse”. Seems when the announcers start mentioning records, it usually doesn’t happen.

As I have practiced for many years now, I realize that I will never be good enough to play on the tour. Of course it was never my dream to play on the tour growing up, I wanted to be in the NFL, and once I became a teenager, my dream changed and I dreamed of being a professional motocross rider, but that never happened either. All of these things I loved, but didn’t have the “stuff”. I started golf in my late 30’s, so it gets even tougher.

The problem was that I knew what I was called to do, but I turned the opposite direction in college. I wanted to be a high school teacher and football coach. All though I wasn’t thrilled about going to school as a teenager, I always wanted to come back and teach. I know, odd, but that is sometimes how our lives work. I was influenced by the baseball coach that I played racquet ball with at Jr. College. He had taken an interest in me and asked me what I was at college for and I told him I wanted to teach and coach. He said, “Why do you want to do that…there’s no money in this job, start your own business”.  He was in his 50’s so I thought he should know, so I changed my thinking.

Knowing what you are called to do vocationally, or what you are shaped to do is an elusive reality for most of us. I knew what I wanted to do but let an outside influence change that. Now I am not blaming that coach for that, but it did have an effect on my decision to teach. I began my journey through different jobs and eventually started my own retail business. I had a passion for stereo equipment and in 1983 I started working for a large retail outlet and began learning the business. In 1992 I began my own business and by 1997 I decided how much I hated it. In 1996 I began volunteering at our church with the youth so I could spend time with my oldest daughter. The ironic thing that unfolded here was, I eventually began teaching and coaching high school students.

I have a question for you…what is your dream? I have totally shifted my thinking around to get in line with God’s will for my particular skill sets. And guess what, I’m 53 years young. There are numbers of people changing careers at even older ages than myself. I think that is exciting and scary at the same time. Many of the men in the bible started their ministry at late ages in their lives. Heck Moses was 80 when he started and that’s just one out of many. I am finding out at my age that it’s never too late, maybe just a little older.

I believe that God puts dreams in our hearts because He created us for things in advance ( Ephesians 2:10” For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do”) He has shaped us to do them. The most important thing we can do in our vocation is do what we were meant to do. It will bring joy to our lives and more importantly, others!

The still small voice-- Thursday morning I woke up extra early to go out and practice. It’s in the 105 degree range and I had a class that I teach in the morning so I went out to work on my game early. There is an area where I usually practice my short game that always has extra balls lying around, so I take advantage of it. One problem with the area is that it is risky. It’s an area where they don’t put much effort in to the maintenance. The range picker sits there and it’s a little rough. The bonus for me is I can hit ¾ wedge shots into the green. But the risk sometimes bites you. I have been hit by shanked drives in the leg, forearm and back. You also have to contend sometimes with meat bees. If you are not familiar with a meat bee, it’s a wasp that looks like a bee that lives with its colony in the ground. I have been bitten by one before at the same course, before I knew that they could bite. But now I was familiar with them. I am allergic to stings, so I swell up quickly. This morning while enjoying my practice time, I noticed some of the balls next to a small hole in the ground and a couple of the bees flew out to protect their kingdom. But I continued to hit balls as a one of them continued to buzz around me. I would swipe it away, but it continued to try and land on me. I began to think immediately that I needed to get out of there but I wanted those extra balls to hit on to the green. After about a minute of swatting at the bee, I walked away from the area. I thought it would be clear, but as I went to hit the next ball, that little sucker came back and landed on my ear, I swatted it away. I put my club next to the ball and it landed on my right wrist. As I started to swat at it, it bit me. Now I have a swollen wrist. What’s the lesson here? Sometimes we take risks that are not wise. When we play golf we may take a shot that is risky, but for some reason you felt comfortable to pull it off and you did. But for most of us, there is usually a small nudge or voice that says to us, “Don’t take the risk”. You see, I knew I was taking a risk with the meat bees. I didn’t listen to the little voice in my head that said, “Don’t mess with em’, you’re gonna get bit”. You have been there before, maybe with a hammer or a knife. You make the unsafe move and “ouch”! Now, a swollen and itchy wrist is not that big of a deal, but I was reminded of the small voice that I sometimes turn away from. You know, that voice that protects us from harm and all together bad choices. How many times have we turned from that voice because we wanted something that wasn’t meant to be ours? In the book of Hebrews chapter 3 the story of Moses is being used as an example of how the Israelites did not listen to God, so they were stuck in the desert for forty years. Hebrews 3:15 “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” When we turn our spiritual ear away, our hearts begin to harden and the voice will eventually be too distant to be heard. One of the most important lessons I have learned in my years working with men is that once a man begins to train himself to listen to that voice and experience it as a relationship, he will then begin the process of becoming a fully functional disciple of Jesus. I realize there are all kinds of areas we could touch here, but I want to focus on one, listening to the “Still small voice”, God’s voice! Are you listening? “Listening to God's voice is the secret of the assurance that He will listen to mine”. --Andrew Murray

Invest and Improve

I enjoy underdog stories how about you? This weekend we saw the world’s top players go home early and men who were long shots in the tournament played on. Ted Potter Jr. and Troy Kelly were unheard of names on the PGA Tour until Sunday. Potter will be given a “pass” to the Masters and both men will be in line for a lifestyle change. Troy Kelly was working in construction just trying to make enough money to play golf. Both will get a substantial payday that will help propel them into their golf career. How would you feel if you went from struggling to make ends meet to trying to figure out what to do with a lot of money. I know, it’s a good problem, but a lot of Americans today find themselves in financial disparity

The story I took from this weekend was of Troy Kelly. Kelly was struggling to make ends meet until this week of golf for him. There is something a lot of us don’t take into consideration. These guys spend a vast amount of time working to get into the position they found themselves in Sunday. They invested in their game to improve themselves on the course. I always find it funny when people say so flippantly, “Well he should be able to hit that shot he’s a pro. Or, well I could do that also, if I was a pro”. Like the person just all of the sudden became a pro.

I think a lot of people think that, just because a guy is a pastor, he automatically is where he is because he’s a pastor. “He knows the bible better than I do because he’s a pastor, he’s a professional.” This is my parallel. The guys we see on the PGA Tour all work and practice their game. Like the two men we saw this weekend. They put in the hard work and it finally paid off. So, why don’t we put in the work studying our bibles if we want to follow the God of the universe? I’ve seen countless men and women continually fall into the trap of not spending time working on their spiritual growth and then wonder why they can’t pull of the “shots” when the trouble comes. What we don’t realize is that we are setting ourselves up for failure.

Jesus was talking with His listeners as they tried to trick Him. He said this to His listeners in the book of Mathew 22:29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” Do you lack power in your life? If you don’t know the scriptures then you don’t know Him personally. If you don’t know Him personally, then you don’t know His power. The Pros have power in their games because they spend time on their game daily. You don’t have to be a pastor or some kind of a professional theologian to study and know Gods word. I sometimes say this statement that gets me in hot water, but I think it’s safe to say it today, “If you don’t spend time in your bible daily, you don’t have relationship with the Lord, you have an acquaintance”. Spiritual growth is the most important practice you and I can do. If we are not putting in the time and effort we are not going to grow. Healthy things grow!

What’s your position?

It’s Sunday morning and I just finished at the driving range with my two brother-in-laws. We are on vacation in San Diego. My brother–in-law is a head PGA professional at a course on the east coast, so we don’t see each other very often. As we began talking about my son’s golf swing and how his fundamentals are very sound at a young age, we began to talk about the “positions” that helped during the swing to have a balanced finish.

In order to have a balanced and good finish, you must have some other things happen in your swing to get to that balanced finish “position”. I see some parallels here that relate to our life. Your “position” in life is directly related to the fundamentals you invest in your daily walk through life. Now, I realize there are few exceptions, but that is just it, there are very few exceptions. We must take proper steps to have fundamentally sound “positions” to have a good balanced finish.

Over the past decade I have changed what I do on a daily basis to have a better finish in my life. If I were to continue on the path I was on early in my adult walk, I would certainly not be in the “position” I am in today. Today, I don’t look over my shoulder and worry about what I may have said to a person or worse, say something untrue to my wife and family. The ‘position” I’m talking about today is integrity. Now, I am well aware that I’m not perfect, but I am far away from the person I once was. I have made a habit of continually putting correct fundamental teaching into my mind which eventually must come out. The book of Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinks so is he”. What are you thinking? What you put in your mind will eventually will come out.

Jesus was having a heavy debate with some of the religious leaders of His time. He knew their hearts, so He said these scorching words to them, Luke 6:45 “The upright (honorable, intrinsically good) man out of the good treasure [stored] in his heart produces what is upright (honorable and intrinsically good), and the evil man out of the evil storehouse brings forth that which is depraved (wicked and intrinsically evil); for out of the abundance (overflow) of the heart his mouth speaks.” Jesus knew what they were filling their minds with. He also knows what we are putting in our minds, which eventually puts us in a “position” of either right or wrong. What “position” are you in…what “position” would you like to see your life in?