And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20, NASB)
I recently bought three “new” wedges on eBay. A big part of my goal was to buy clubs that matched my irons, which my old wedges didn’t. The thinking is that since repeatability is desired in a golf swing, clubs that look and feel and behave the same across the set would be good.
I matched the heads just fine, but I failed to match the shafts, the so-called engine of the golf club. Well, that just wouldn’t do, so I got back online, planning to replace the shafts in the wedges I had just purchased. I shared this with my wife, who first asked what was wrong with the wedges the way they were now and then wanted to know, “How much does that cost?” Wives are like that. Practical. Cost conscious—even about golf.
About $20 a club, I explained, maybe $25, and I’d install them myself. She then asked how much it would be if I bought different new wedges with the right shaft already in them, and I explained that those clubs would be a minimum of $50 each and she said, “Yes, but how many times have you put a new shaft in a club before?” Touché!
But where would we be if we didn’t try new things, if we didn’t learn new skills? We’d be stuck in a rut is where we’d be, and my old preacher buddy used to say that a rut is just a grave with both ends kicked out.
Yes, I may damage a shaft or a head or myself in my attempt to reshaft these wedges, but by the third wedge I’d be better at it than I am now. If you ask three people this week about their relationship with Jesus, you’ll be better at it the third time than you were the first, if in fact that is a skill you haven’t already developed. Wouldn’t it be easier/safer/simpler to just leave people like they are—the way my wife suggested I leave my wedges? Or if you think something must be done, wouldn’t it be better to let an expert do it?
The truth is that all of us who play golf are not called to be club builders. You don’t have to reshaft your own clubs, or regrip them. You don’t even have to clean them. You can just use them and leave them alone, or let someone else take care of them.
But all of us who follow Jesus are called to be kingdom builders. Letting someone else (professional Christians) take care of the people you meet may seem prudent to you, because you might mess it up and the pros know what they’re doing; but that is incomplete thinking.
Jesus wouldn’t have told us all to do this if we couldn’t do it. Besides, you will not be doing it on your own. In fact, I won’t even be putting those shafts in on my own. I’ll have instructions online, including text and videos, to help me as I learn. And you? You will have Jesus himself with you, who followed his commandment to make disciples with this fabulous promise: “I will be with you.”
And he never, ever fails to keep a promise.
—
Lewis Greer
January 14, 2014
Copyright 2014 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.