Faith is like a golf swing

Last week, I played my first round on the par three for the year. It was ugly, challenging and golf.

The first time I picked up a club, I thought the goal was to clobber the golf ball. I figured the harder I hit the thing, the straighter and further it would go, but this is far from the truth.

My stepdad, is always encouraging, critiquing and guiding my golf swing. If it was not for my stepdad, I probably would not spend any time golfing at all. Anyways, he reminded me that clobbering the ball actually is not the goal. He said "focus on the swing and let the swing take care of the ball." This is amazing advice.

Another golf challenge is of self-thought and reflection. In order to focus on your golf swing there is a need to think. It is important to remember what a good swing looks and feels like. It is good to practice a good swing. How is my stance? How is my posture? How is my grip? Are my wrists bent? Can I keep my elbows straight? Will my back swing be slow and deliberate? Will my head stay straight? Will my forearm motion be smooth? It certainly is not about merely smashing the ball hard.

On the other hand, it is also easy to over think it. While I am standing in front of the ball, thinking about my swing, I need to actually hit the ball. Thinking about it will not do any good without the action. Also while I am contemplating all the details of my swing, my body gets more tense and tight.   The more uptight my body becomes, the less successful my swing actually is.

The faith life of a Christian is not unlike the golf swing:

My heavenly Father is always encouraging, critiquing and guiding my faith. If it was not for the Heavenly Father and His grace, I could not have such faith. The Father is always reminding me "have faith and in faith trust me to take care of everything thing else (Mt. 6:33)." This is amazing advice!

There is a need to think about our personal faith life. There is a need for personal reflection and outward strategy for faith in the church. We should think about our actions beforehand and do some planning. We should also do some praying and preparing (with God's Word). Are we sinning? Are we living righteous? Are we surrendering to God?

On the other hand, we can easily over think and over plan. While we are sitting in our churches (or in our reading rooms) over thinking, we can become too comfortable. We can think about and talk about our faith all we want to be there also needs to be action (James 2:17).

So let us make deliberate good moves in our faith life, let us pray, worship and study His Word together, but let us also go out and in action in the real word and get on par about our faith by sharing the love of Christ.