Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. (Romans 12:10, ESV)
Have you ever thought about how you keep score on the golf course? “It’s simple,” I can hear you reply. “You just count the strokes you’ve taken on a hole and write them on the card.”
I suppose that is a common method, especially in competitive play, and it has spilled over into our normal games. But I almost never keep score that way.
Several years ago, I was playing a round of golf with my friend Lon Martin, and when we were headed toward our drives on number 4 he said, “Are you going to keep score?” I told him I was keeping score in my head, and he wondered how that was possible.
“Easy,” I said. “I just keep score relative to par. For instance, I’m one over. But I might be even or one under or two over. I don’t think of the total until I’m done.”
Funny man that he was, he said, “I could never do that! The number would be too high. Some rounds I even need an extra pencil!” That wasn’t really true, but it made me laugh then and still makes me smile.
In another “keeping score” conversation, Links leader Bob Keever and I were playing when he made a five on a par four and said, “How about that? Another KP!”
I wondered what a KP was, and he said, “A Keever par.” What a great way to keep score — forget the total and just make as many KPs and KBs as you can! I love it.
How do you keep score off the golf course? Sean Vollendorf suggested to me that we should always try to shoot 59. “That’d be great,” I said. “How?”
“There are 59 ‘one-anothers’ in the Bible,” he explained. “What if we lived those out every day?”
I personally know three golfers who have shot 59 or better. I’m well past matching that on the course, but maybe I could do it in life.
Even in this devotion part of my goal has been to honor three others – Lon, Bob, and Sean — and thank them for enriching my life.
Perhaps if we all would think more about “one another,” we might one day shoot that elusive 59.
Prayer: Father, thank you for giving us “one another.” We know we are far, far better together. Help us to love and honor and encourage one another, both on and off the course! In Jesus’ name, Amen