The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. (Psalm 19:1-4a, ESV)
Do you have a favorite time of day to play golf? Personally, I favor early mornings or at the close of a day. I prefer early mornings because it usually means that the pace of play is unhindered. More importantly, there is something inexplicable about being a “dew sweeper.”
There is a calm that fills the air on those chilly mornings that borders on the mystical. As a high school kid who enjoyed mowing the greens, I’ve had my share of “mystical moments” atop a Toro.
Occasionally, playing alone as the sun retires from another day’s work provides a great time for reflection, especially if one is keeping in step with the Spirit of God.
Dawn and Dusk—the bookends of any given day—normally provide a great context for a meaningful round of golf. In truth, a round of golf, on a beautiful course, at any time of day, with good friends, is one of the great joys of life.
To jump start a day with a round of golf, especially if one is striking the ball with authority, is magical. To close a day with a round of golf, especially if the round has unfolded as hoped for, is to sense something almost transcendent.
If you are not a golfer, that last sentiment will strike you as classic overstatement. If you love the game, asserting that golf can provide the context for a transcendent experience, is par for the course.
Transcendent moments can, of course, happen anywhere. What do we mean by transcendent moments? A transcendent moment is when the Sovereign God breaks through the ordinariness of life by his Spirit to awaken the consciousness of a man or woman to the extra-ordinary reality of the spiritual dimension. To be clear, this doesn’t only happen to those who have had their lives transformed by the grace of God.
More than a few unbelieving poets, writers, philosophers, and mystics have written extensively about experiencing these magical moments when, at least for them, some unexplainable something breaks into their consciousness, awakening them to a sense of the sacred.
C.S. Lewis spent a lifetime attempting to capture these moments in words. In his book, The Pilgrim’s Regress, Lewis writes about these encounters as follows, “[an] unnamable something, desire for which pierces us like a rapier.”
Paul, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, teaches us that the Transcendent, Trinitarian God is always and everywhere communicating himself to his creatures (Psalm 19; Romans 1). The fact that many poets, philosophers, and others don’t properly recognize who is speaking is entirely their fault. According to Paul, the “natural man” cannot discern the voice of the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:14).
If you are looking for a reason why so many false religions, philosophical systems, and cults always get it wrong, this is fundamentally why—they sense the reality of the “wholly other” only to assign attributes to this encounter with the imaginations of their own mind rather than rightly recognizing their Maker (Acts 17:29).
For the golfer who has been supernaturally born from above and had his mind enlightened by the Spirit to hear his Shepherd speak in Scripture, he can properly recognize these transcendent moments as the overtures of the Father’s love and grace giving us a taste of what is to come.
Prayer- May Christ our King send wave after wave of his affections toward you through the person of the Spirit as you walk the fairways on and off the course.