Two Putt to Success

In golf your goal is to at minimum get the ball on the green in regulation. It is that one part of the game that every golfer can at least get lucky every round or so and hit a green in regulation. But then comes the true test of a golfers strength of mind, putting. Putting has been the downfall of many a golfer and has given out nicknames like the golden bear, shooter, and tin man to many a pro. It seems so simple right? But yet it can frustrate us beyond all repair. We have seen movie after movie that shows putting as this natural thing as natural as a bodies movement. But its not. There is no secret remedy for the excellent putting game. Its not just a simple tap tap tapporoo but it is so much more. It takes hours and hours of practice.

One thing that I have learned is this. Putting once a green is a very hard task for me. I will try everything in my power to get the ball in that little round cup in just one simple putt. Doesn’t matter to me if it is thirty feet or three I want to make it in one putt. I found that I would mess up my game even worse. I would wind up making three or four putts per green. But then it hit me one day from the words of my golf coach. All I needed to do was two putt to success. If I sent the ball traveling in the direction of the cup with not too much force in my swing that the ball would, if I aimed correctly, would be close enough for a simple putt to get the ball in the cup. I had to aim in the right direction and away from any obstacles that stood out in my way, hit the ball with just the right amount of power, and stay focus that the ball would be close enough to make it in with a second putt. This improved my golf game immensely and took several strokes off of a single round of golf.

Then it hit me. This idea is a lot like the pursuit of what God will in our lives. Now stay with me and I promise you will see exactly what I am talking about. When we take these three things and apply them to our own lives we will see exactly what we are missing. The three things we need to be work on is our aim, force, and focus.

Aim is important in putting. If you are aiming at the wrong direction your ball will head an entirely different direction than where you were even aiming. It is frustrating when the same thing happens to you in your life. We have a tendency to aim at what we think is the best direction to take and just end up lost and confused and frustrated. We point the finger at God, say that the “green” didn’t break the right way, or even something got in our way. We never point the finger at ourselves and say that we just had our aim way off. We were not even pointing close to where God wants us and it takes time, effort, and pain to get back to where we belong.

Force is hard not to ignore in the game of golf. It’s an idea that holds a steep learning curve. Some greens are faster than others, some are wet, and sometimes we are fifty yards away from the hole. We try to force the ball in hitting it as hard as we possibly could and yet the ball becomes and unpredictable object in this horrible game. Sometimes we hit it too softly and get angry and want to throw our putter as hard and as far as we can. But yet the same is in life. Sometimes a situation arises in our own life and we try to force the outcome that we think is best but yet just wind up making the situation. And sometimes we just lay off too much and the ball barely even gets rolling. The hardest thing in life to do a majority of the time is to just let God be God. We try to get what we think is best, or even force Gods will to develop too prematurely. We do everything in our power sometimes to take God out of the equation. WE try to force Gods hand. And yet it never works. We wind up making the situation so much worse. And become so much farther away from where we need to be than when we started. But if we just don’t try and force the issue we will see God lead us exactly in the direction we need to go.

Focus is a pivotal part of the game. If your mind is wandering your game will falter but if you over think every aspect of the game you will go crazy. Even in our lives we have a tendency to lose focus on the hole and the goal God has placed in our lives. We lose sight of where God wants us exactly to be. Its crazy to think that sometimes we are willing to let our mind lead us down a path that is totally against anything God would even have for our lives.

If we just approach our lives almost like a two putt to success I believe we will see dramatic changes in our current states of frustration, anger, and resentment. IF we just follow Gods leading and aim directly at where he wants us, we don’t try and force the will too prematurely or even force ourselves out of his will, and focus on him and what he has for our life, I guarantee that He will do the rest. He will elad us and guide us and encourage us even in the toughest of lies. His love for us never fades, never forces pain, and never causes resentment. His love is the factor in our life that we need to play off of. We need to let God be God and allow him to take our second putt…in our two putt to success.