Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14, NASB)
If you let it, golf can become a game of what-ifs.
What if I hadn’t yanked that driver OB on the first hole? What if I didn’t three-putt four times? If I didn’t double-bogey the sixteenth, I would have broken 80. Well, if you didn’t double sixteen, you probably wouldn’t have birdied seventeen and parred eighteen! You set yourself up for a bad hole because you were thinking too soon about breaking 80.
The what-ifs don’t deal in reality; they deal in what might have been. You can go there, but at some point, you need to come back to what really happened.
In the June 2019 edition of Golf magazine, Jack Nicklaus was asked which talent he would most like to have. He replied, “I’m really quite happy with what my talents were. No what-ifs.”
What-ifs are never about reality, and reality is where we play the game of life.My wife Melody and I have three children, Kate (29), Rachel (27), and Weston (20). The girls have a condition in which they did not develop myelin like you and me. They are physically and mentally retarded.
Melody helped me understand two things early on. First, if God brought the two of us together, then He made the girls exactly the way He intended. Second, God will give us the grace to take care of Kate and Rachel. Our friends and family have been extremely helpful throughout the girls’ lives, and Melody has worked hard to navigate the special needs resources that are available.
Looking back, we have been able to avoid the what-ifs. It really served no purpose to wonder what might have been. What if the girls had been born differently? They would be headed to prom, to college, or getting married. What-ifs are never about reality, and reality is where we play the game of life. Paul could have said, “What if I hadn’t spoken so boldly and been thrown in jail?” Jonah could have asked, “What if I had listened to God the first time?” Peter could have questioned, “What if I hadn’t denied the Messiah?”
When we decide to play a sport, we need to accept what’s happened and move on. It is the same in life. God is either in control or he is not. I think we all know the answer to that one.
—
Bill Euler
May 30, 2019
Copyright 2019 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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