The "God Zone"

I hit a bucket of golf balls for the first time in about a year the other day.  I’ve had a shoulder injury that’s kept me from golf for awhile but I still want to hit a bucket every now and then to attempt to keep my rhythm until I can get the corrective surgery I really need.  I love the “feeling” at a golf course, how peaceful and quiet everything is and I always find a nice time of reflection when I’m there.

I stretched a little bit and grabbed my wedge to warm up and hit some nice, easy shots.  I ran through my mental checklist: 

Head down, eye on the ball, keep your right elbow in (my weak spot) nice and easy – don’t try and kill it

And WOW, a beautiful pitch with a high arch that hit and finally came to rest within about 8 feet of the flag I was aiming for, an easy putt into the hole had I been really playing.  I continued to hit nice easy wedge shots and maintained the basics:

Head down, eye on the ball, keep your right elbow in (my weak spot) nice and easy – don’t try and kill it

I worked up in club length and I was hitting the ball really well, I was in the ZONE.  I start thinking to myself that maybe I can blow off the surgery and start to play again.  Just take it easy and don’t push too hard, everything will be fine.  Of course I feel this way because I’m in the ZONE, cracking beautiful shots.  SO I decide it’s time to take out the big boy and check out my distance.  A driver will be my real test.  So I set up the tee and run through my mental check list:

Head down, eye on the ball, keep your right elbow in (my weak spot) nice and easy – don’t try and kill it

Boom!  An amazingly straight shot that comes low off the tee and begins to take altitude even had that awesome sound when the club hit the ball telling me it was a good one.  This is great so I go and get another bucket to crack some more monster drives. 

The drives continue to look good so I decide I’m going to crush a few, give it everything I’ve got, holding back and laying up is for wimps right?  A dozen shots later I’m slicing so bad and balls are flying around in crazy places and oh no, people are starting to stare at me.    I load up my clubs and what’s left of my pride and head back to the car to go back to the office.  About half way there I start to feel something bad, my shoulder really hurts.

Back in my office with pain patch on my shoulder trying to figure out why I did something so stupid, again, a thought hit me.  My shots got crazy because of a lack of obedience to good form.  My shoulder was killing me due to a lack of obedience to my doctor’s order to NOT do what I’d just done.  And the truth is that pretty much every mess I’ve ever made in life was for the same thing, a lack of obedience to something.

Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you.  Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.

Joshua 1:7

To be “in the zone” as a Christian is when we are living a life of obedience to God and His statues as outlined in the Bible.  When walk in obedience to God we allow Him to unfold His plan for our life.  When we walk in obedience to God we follow the wisdom that His Word gives us, not the wisdom of the world.  Our purpose can become sure because our purpose becomes obedience to something other than ourselves, something that can be measured, the Word of God. 

King Saul had it all; a kingdom, respect of his people and even the very hand of God on his life as a result of obedience.  But he lost it when obedience took a back seat to his personal desires.

Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to hearken than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
he has also rejected you from being king.

1 Samuel 15:22-23

If we start looking around our life and trying to find out where God went, we need only look at the time and place we quit following Him.  He’s back there waiting for us if we choose to pick up the walk with Him again

True obedience to God, or anything else for that matter, is when we choose to be obedient to an idea or practice no matter what the short term results may be.  Today more and more people are coming to church and seeking God purely to achieve an outcome that’s beneficial to them.  But God expects our worship of Him to glorify Him, not us.

The parting of the Red Sea, the walls of Jericho falling, all the people the Apostles healed; even a coin found in a fishes mouth to pay a toll.  All of these and many more great things were accomplished by man, but only in obedience to God’s direction – obedience to Him.

Be obedient to God and hold Him accountable for the results!  That’s just the way He wants it.

 Be encouraged my friends,

Jeff