My golf swing

Repost from 2020

Years ago I studied golf relentlessly. And I got really good at it. I didn’t get as good as a professional but I was good. I was literally a 3 to 4 handicap for about a year and a half. I practiced I studied I constantly renewed my mind about the golf swing. I pictured in my mind what a good golf swing looked like. I practiced my short game, I practiced my putting and in my mind I saw myself as a great putter.

Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is his good pleasing and perfect will.

What does that have to do with Romans 12:2? I was constantly renewing my mind regarding my golf swing. I convinced myself that I was a great golfer. It’s the same way in our walk with the Lord.

What are you doing to renew your mind? And is what you are doing enough? Only you know the answer to that question. Don’t misunderstand me don’t look at this from a works standpoint but look at it from ….. I Love you Lord and this is what I want to do and that is spend time with you.

“God’s Word was not written in our conscious, intellectual mind. That is our responsibility.” Dr Richards.

I started playing golf in the 7th grade. I was horrible. Nobody taught me, and I didn’t read anything. I did the best that I could. I formed all my own opinions about the game of golf and the golf swing. My dad taught me the proper grip and that was it. The grip is the foundation of the golf swing. But that’s all I had. Then I started learning from different friends all kinds of different concepts and some were bad. I had one jacked up golf swing. Then I went to golf college in the ’90s and had to unlearn everything. This is basically where I’m at today. In my relationship with God Jesus and Holy Spirit, I am unlearning all the opinions from friends, teachers, and pastors. These opinions are based on their interpretations of the Bible. Now I’m digging on my own. I’m forming my own opinion about the death burial and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus. My eyes have been opened.

I’m learning that it’s not the devil that speaks in my mind.  (there is no scripture to backup that the devil can speak into your mind, he is defeated) The more I renew my mind the more my thoughts line up with God’s. The less I renew my mind, I interpret God’s word to fit my own opinion. I rely on my old traditions and my old thought patterns. When that happens, it’s not the devil. It’s just old thought patterns creeping back in. This happens because I am not renewing my mind. It’s the same with the golf swing. When I swing bad it’s not the devil,  it’s me. I don’t use the devil as a crutch.  I own my mistakes.  I own my stinking thinking.

A lot has changed over the last 15 years with my golf game. I have stopped renewing my mind. I don’t practice. I get out and play once or twice a year. I might hit two or three buckets of balls. I try to remember everything that I used to know. I might watch a YouTube video on the golf swing occasionally. When I do that, I introduce a new opinion instead of going back to the books. Now I formulate new opinions in my mind about how my golf swing should be. Many of those opinions are inaccurate. Rather than renewing my mind, I still revert to the old ways. That doesn’t work for me very well.

Take everything that I write with a grain of salt it’s my opinion but it’s what I’m getting from Reading God’s word and spending time alone with the three.

Eph 4:21 — Eph 4:24
assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

You are holy, you are chosen, you are righteous, you have been set apart and sanctified. Nothing can change that. Renew your mind every chance you get!