I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. (Ephesians 4:1-2, ESV)
When our Links Players staff comes together, the topics of discussion touch many details of the game. Last week Jeff Hopper and I got to talking about slow play. It is one of those issues that pops up every now and then when a sportswriter or TV reporter can’t think of anything interesting to comment on.
It makes me think they are having a slow day.
But golfers dutifully pick up on the issue and unleash their opinions on websites, on Twitter, and perhaps even in letters to the editor. Most of their comments are complaints—I rarely see a defender of slow play—made about a few professional golfers on TV.
Jeff and I agreed that slow play on TV does not bother us. “Most of the golf I watch on TV is recorded,” I said, “so I just fast-forward through it.”
What would the market price be for a year if I could sell you one of mine?Of course, I can’t fast-forward through the slow group in front of me, though I have been known to skip a hole and go around, which is kind of the same thing. I give myself a par on the skipped hole, or a birdie if I’m feeling generous, and suddenly my day is brighter. You should try it.
Why do we complain about slow traffic, slow checkout lines, and slow play, but not about a slow sunset, a slow kiss, or the taste of slow cooked ribs?
C.S. Lewis gave the answer in The Screwtape Letters. Screwtape, a senior devil, advises his nephew, a minor devil, that there is a fundamental deception he can use against the man he is trying to get to turn against the Enemy (God): “[Unexpected demands on his time] anger him because he regards his time as his own and feels that it is being stolen. You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption ‘My time is my own’.”
The world tells us that it is our time, as if we actually possessed it. Can you imagine the chaos if that were true? What would the market price be for a year if I could sell you one of mine?
You won’t find that in the Bible. You will find that “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you” (2 Peter 3:8-9).
Can you have that same patience toward the players in front of you? Can you walk the fairways in a worthy manner, with humility and gentleness and patience? If you can, slow play will go away. Slow players won’t, but you will be bearing with them rather than fuming about them.
It’s a better way to play, and a better way to live.
—
Lewis Greer
March 13, 2019
Copyright 2019 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.