Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts. (Jeremiah 15:16, ESV)
The GPS chirped, “You have arrived.” The small, unpretentious sign was tucked into the landscaping, and we almost missed it. The last time I drove into Chicago Golf Club I caddied at the USGA Senior Women’s Open. As the first 18-hole golf club in North America and one of the five founding clubs of the USGA, awe and wonder bubbled out of me, “This is amazing.” What a gift to be playing two rounds at this iconic course.
Inside the clubhouse, I stopped in front of the USGA trophies representing the six championships played at Chicago Golf Club over the last one hundred years. As a past winner of the USGA Women’s Public Links Championship, I felt connected to the history represented behind the glass.
I chose to play the white tees (just over 6500 yards of firm fairways, pot bunkers, and treacherous greens). I was not deterred by my three-putt double on the first hole. I oriented to the beauty around me and determined to play one shot, one hole at a time. The same was true for my second round. I didn’t beat the golf course either day (75-72), but I was filled with a renewed joy and delight for golf and its history.
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If walking around a historic golf course can reimagine joy and delight in a game, then how much more would be walking in God’s Word every day carry living water to our parched souls?
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There was a short period when I walked away from golf vowing to never play again. Golf had lost its allure. My spiritual life has experienced similar patterns. I have never walked away from God, but I have turned a cold shoulder at him. Have you ever felt the same?
If this is true, how might joy and delight be renewed toward God and his scriptures? Do you find yourself in the contours of life that feel impossible? Or maybe you are experiencing fairways and greens and one putts? The former can turn our face away from God and declare he does not care. The latter might turn into complacency. Either extreme can lead to spiritual dryness.
First, we are invited to give reverence to the historical biblical story. This includes the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) and the New Testament. The Bible Project shares, “Not every passage in the Hebrew Bible is about the entire biblical story leading to Jesus. But every passage will play off the themes introduced in the garden (Gen. 1-3). And these themes are developed throughout the Hebrew Bible, weaving in and out of narratives, songs, parables, and prophecies (Shara Drimalla, BibleProject Blog).”
Second, we are invited to interact with the narrative every day. I recently had dinner with a professor emeritus at Wheaton college and learned he spends the first forty-five minutes to an hour of his day reading his Bible. Not for study, but for the pure enjoyment of being with God. Consequently, he has read through the Bible 54 times.
If walking around a historic golf course can reimagine joy and delight in a game, then how much more would be walking in God’s Word every day carry living water to our parched souls?
Prayer: Lord Father, thank you for your Word. Help us to engage with your story with fresh awe and wonder today.