Get a Grip!
When I was a young boy, my dad introduced me to golf. It started out innocently enough with one of those plastic toy sets that can do pretty much nothing (even the golf ball it came with was hollowed out plastic!). I was given a “junior set” of clubs as I grew older (when I could be trusted with swinging metal objects). Through much practice and experience, I actually turned into a pretty good golfer! (that was of course, until I discovered the guitar, and later on, cars)
Fast forward to today… I’m no Tiger Woods, (or for my father’s generation, no Lee Trevino… uhh, Google him!) but I learned a lot from golfing with my dad and the instructions he gave. However, I think the hardest thing for me to learn was the grip! Playing tee-ball, farm league baseball, etc., I was more inclined to grip the club like a baseball bat! Kind of like this (only facing down):
Of course, if I swung the golf club with a grip like that, I would be fortunate just to make contact with the ball! But to me as a young, dumb kid… it felt right! I was comfortable holding it like that! And of course I didn’t want to believe my dad when he said that it was wrong and I had to do it some other way.
A proper golf grip can seem foreign, awkward and uncomfortable to someone that is used to another form. Your right hand seems out of place, plus the whole interlocking-fingers-thing just feels odd! This is how it’s supposed to be:
This is much like our relationship with God (and life itself). We often want to do what feels right to us! Being comfortable takes precedent over what is correct.
In this case, when we listen to our Father’s advice, we are challenged because the feelings, instincts, etc. can’t always be trusted! What feels right doesn’t necessarily translate to being right. The perspective comes into place here, because young, prideful arrogance goes against the infinite wisdom of a great instructor, and of course the instructor has far more knowledge about it than we do!
So it becomes a matter of not just listening to the advice we’re given, but following through with it. This advice is not for us to fail, but to succeed! Quite simply, OUR FATHER KNOWS BETTER THAN WE DO! (duh!)
Years ago when my dad was teaching me how to play golf, he showed me the proper golf grip in order for my drives not to sail into someone’s living room. He wanted to see me hit right down the middle, the way it should be! That’s what God is crying out everyday to His children… this is how you’re supposed to live! The Bible clearly shows us what is right and what is wrong. Life’s Instruction Manual, authored by the Creator of the entire universe, is right under our nose!
Yet, what do we as human beings tend to do? Ignore the advice we’re given, and “do our own thing”. Guess what happens when we do that? We usually fail miserably… all thanks to that stupid thing we often rely on called pride.
Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty (arrogant) spirit before a fall.”
Needless to say, it took me more than a few tries to get this grip down. The prideful temptation to go back to what I knew because it worked for me once-in-a-blue-moon was there for the taking. But I stuck with the instructions I was given, and sure enough I started playing a whole lot better! (imagine that!) This new grip produced a straight shot that was not attainable before when I tried doing it “my way”.
Another passage in Proverbs (3:5-6) tells us to, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
In other words, our Father knows best… we need to take His advice!
Give up the things/habits/sins that you think you “need” in your life! Start following the detailed instructions God has given us through His Word (the Bible), and experience a life with far less disappointment, discouragement, and failure. We get to find the fulfillment we’d never know otherwise!
As far as my golf career goes, it’s on hold for now… I mean, I’m far too compassionate to just flat-out humiliate those poor guys on the PGA Tour! 
