Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1:4, NIV)
I found myself in a conversation this week with someone who understands the technology behind modern golf clubs. We got to talking about the limitations the governing bodies have placed on the “punch” a driver can give a golf ball.
Club manufacturers recognize these restrictions and have spoken openly about them. If you want more distance from your driver, they say, you are out of luck. At least if we’re talking about the sweet spot.
What these manufacturers will tell you is left for them to accomplish is increasing a driver’s moment of inertia (MOI). In layman’s terms, this effectively means increasing the size of the sweet spot so that balls struck away from the center of the clubface travel as well as balls struck dead center1. If you’re a golf club designer, it’s the last frontier in terms of driver design.
I find an interesting parallel between this progression and our spiritual growth in Christ.
When Jesus enters our life—when we say yes to him and begin surrendering our will to his—the size of our “light” is quite small. This light is the character of Christ himself being revealed through us. Because we come to him with a lot of old filters that need cleansing by his Word, there is a certain obscuring of his life in us. This does not mean that we can’t be effective for him—far from it! It simply means there is a broadening of his influence on our own character that is yet to be achieved; it is something he will spend a lifetime doing in us.
As we continue to surrender… as we continue to learn from his Word… as we continue to seek his leading… as we continue to be transformed by the renewing of our mind… yes, as we continue to grow in Christ, the size of our light grows, too. Our character looks increasingly like his. We are not just demonstrating maturity in one little area of life; we are shining the light of Christ in more and more of what we say and do.
Why stick with Christ? Because he has designs to make all of you like him!
1No wonder the team at Frankly Frog Golf suggests we change from calling it MOI to calling it MOF, for Measure of Forgiveness!
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Jeff Hopper
September 13, 2013
Copyright 2013 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.