I am not what you would call an avid golfer, nor am I what you would call a good golfer… Let’s just take it all the way and say that it would be most accurate if you didn’t call me a golfer at all. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the game, but golf requires levels of calm, patience, and precision that escape me. Over the last five years or so, I have golfed a grand total of 1 (one) time every year. Every year around this time, I quite literally dust off my clubs to participate in the annual Clarity Golf Scramble.
Do-overs are great, but it turns out that getting to do something again doesn’t do a lot of good if you aren’t able to do it better.
There are two aspects of this event that make it particularly enjoyable for me. The first is the availability of official “Mulligans.” A “Mulligan” is basically a do-over. For a small fee, participants can pay for the right to take three of these babies! If a player should happen to shank a ball out into an adjacent cornfield, which is more a question of when than if for me, you simply grab a ball and have another go at it. Interestingly enough, the sequel is often worse than the original. You overthink what you did wrong on the first shot and often end up sending the second ball careening off into oblivion in the opposite direction of the first. Do-overs are great, but it turns out that getting to do something again doesn’t do a lot of good if you aren’t able to do it better.
This brings me to the second, and even more incredible aspect of this event. It is played in a scramble format. In a scramble, all members of a team will take a shot from the same spot. They will then determine which shot was the best and everyone will retrieve their balls and take them to join the best ball. For a hacker like me, this is a game changer. I can hit as many balls as I want into as many cornfields as I can find and still I can experience the thrill of victory through the efforts of my more skilled and capable companions.
I have often said that salvation provides us with the ultimate “Mulligan.” It’s a nice thought, because who doesn’t need a do-over every now and again in life. But as I continued sending balls in unproductive directions on the golf course, it struck me that a “Mulligan” does little more than provide another chance to mess it up. Isaiah 64:6 paints a pretty clear picture. It reads, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” Not the most encouraging verse, but a necessary truth for us to confront. We are, each of us, corrupted by our sin nature and it isn’t a matter of if we will make a mistake; it’s a matter of when. We need something more.
God, in His grace, has provided us with more than a spiritual “Mulligan…”
God, in His grace, has provided us with more than a spiritual “Mulligan,” though. Through Jesus, it’s not just a matter of slinging shot after shot in every which direction, often with the next effort being as messed up or worse than the last. Rather, it’s more like playing in a scramble with the perfect pro, an absolute and certain sure thing. When we accept the gift of salvation in and through the work of Jesus, we don’t have to take another shot to try to do better and catch up with Him. We get to pick up our metaphorical ball and share the experience and benefits of His perfect shot. To further ride the golfing metaphor, it’s like playing with someone who gets a hole in one on every shot. Victory is assured! In I Corinthians 1:30 it says, “It is because of [God] that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.”
The good news of the gospel, however, is that our salvation isn’t dependent upon our best efforts.
We could all use a few “Mulligans” in life. And, even though we’ll fail over and over, we should make the most of every opportunity, making our best efforts to become all God would have us to be. The good news of the gospel, however, is that our salvation isn’t dependent upon our best efforts. As it says in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” Instead, we simply accept the invitation to join Jesus’s team, understanding that He has both the skill and ability to do what we could not. We don’t do anything to earn the proverbial win, but we still get to share in the joy of the victory.
