I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2: 20, ESV)
It wasn’t that long ago that a knowledgeable swing coach mentioned the importance of “recentering” our weight and hips toward the lead leg while still finishing our backswing. I don’t know about you, but my initial reaction was an immediate “Charlie Horse,” not in my calves but in my brain.
After researching this swing thought across innumerable online golf instructional videos, the idea became clearer. However, learning to shift my weight properly towards my lead leg while finishing my backswing doesn’t come easy.
I am still a bit fuzzy on implementing what has, by all appearances, become a popular talking point among the game’s best instructors. In truth, watching multiple well-known golf instructors doesn’t make it any easier.
These world-class golfing gurus agree on the importance of recentering one’s weight forward while still finishing the backswing. Still, there are some significant differences among them regarding how one does it.
Recreational golfers typically don’t get caught up in all the latest swing thoughts on offer. Others, who love improving their swing, are often gullible, failing to discern between sound advice and “snake oil.”
The ever-elusive pursuit of a perfect golf swing can become addictive. Butch Harmon is fond of saying, “we play golf, we don’t play golf swing,” or something like that.
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I, along with millions of others, can attest that we have found what we were looking for by “recentering” our lives around Jesus Christ.
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Needless to say, “swing tips” come and go. But good swing mechanics is not something we should cavalierly dismiss. I am no authority, but this idea of “recentering” seems to be solid advice.
What I can’t say with any authority about the golf swing, I can say with complete confidence about life in this world. Bono sings, “I still can’t find what I am looking for.” I, along with millions of others, can attest that we have found what we were looking for by “recentering” our lives around Jesus Christ.
A historical example of recentering might help. In the early days of the 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus, the Polish astronomer, shocked the scientific and religious world by postulating that the earth, along with the other planets, revolved around the Sun, a heliocentric model.
Up until this time, the Aristotelean and Ptolemaic models governed astronomy. They maintained that the earth was the center of the solar system, a geocentric model. It turns out Copernicus was right. He effectively “recentered” our understanding of the cosmos.
Providentially, all this was occurring at the same time that the Reformation (the early 1500s) was recovering the gospel from centuries of distortion and confusion. Martin Luther, among others, after years of trying to earn his salvation by living a pious life, discovered that salvation was the gift of God through what Jesus had achieved in his cross work and resurrection.
The Reformers and their spiritual offspring had “recentered” the church around its true center—
Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. No longer would we grope in the darkness of trying to placate the just wrath of God against our sinfulness through our own efforts.
What Copernicus and Galileo discovered through mathematics and science, Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin discovered in Scripture—salvation was earned by Jesus and is free to those who repent and believe in him.
Furthermore, the Reformers and all who follow in their footsteps have discovered that living a life of freedom and purpose comes from recentering our lives around the person and plans of Jesus Christ. He is, indeed, the Son, around which everyone should revolve.
Prayer: Lord, enable us to decenter our lives from revolving around ourselves and recenter our lives around you.