And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.” (Exodus 14:13, ESV)
I have an idea for a reality show for Golf Channel, and every player I know would want to be on it. The working title is “Biggest Gainer.” it would feature golfers who want to increase their swing speed significantly.
The idea came to me as I was reflecting on a lesson given to a group of us by Ted Scott, a professional teacher and golfer best known for being Bubba Watson’s caddie.
About five years ago, Ted told us, J.B. Holmes and his brother (or was it his caddie?) came to Ted and said they could help him hit the ball a lot farther. Ted was all in. What did he have to do?
They were stuck between the Red Sea and an advancing Egyptian army, and their knees were buckling under them.First, they explained, he had to free his mind up to believe that it was OK to swing a club really, really fast. The second thing was that he had to have stability and mobility.
We students tend to dismiss the parts of a lesson we think we have and latch on to parts we think we need. Mobility, in this case the ability to turn your shoulders and your torso independently, was not my issue. On the other hand, I was intrigued by stability, what it meant, and how it could help.
To check your own stability, see how long you can stand on one foot. Now with your eyes closed. Now with your eyes closed while shaking your head. Now with your eyes open while catching a medicine ball. Turns out most of us are not that stable, but if we were, we could swing a lot faster.
It also turns out that the children of Israel, recently freed from slavery in Egypt, needed to work on their stability. They were stuck between the Red Sea and an advancing Egyptian army, and their knees were buckling under them. We could just as easily have died in Egypt, they told Moses, or continued to be slaves, but now here we are and it’s your fault.
Stand firm, he answered, and see the salvation of the Lord. Those very words need to ring in our ears, for we too get a little shaky in our faith, in our trust of God, in our confidence that he knows what he is doing and loves us and is working for our good.
But we have not practiced stability, and when the medicine ball is thrown in the form of a test, we don’t know how to stand firm. Instead we fall.
Ted learned to stand firm, worked hard, and in three months increased his maximum swing speed from a respectable 108 mph to a phenomenal 130 mph. If that can be done in golf, imagine what we could accomplish in our faith with help, with practice, and with perseverance. Stand firm.
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Lewis Greer
December 9, 2019
Copyright 2019 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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