Last night, we went to TopGolf – for those of you that aren’t familiar with TopGolf – imagine a trendy bowling alley environment crossed with a golf driving range. It is a lot of fun. On our way my wife and I had a great conversation with our youngest son about his future. Without getting into too many details, the main point of the conversation was that saying you wanted to accomplish something was not enough. You have to put in the work. And if you are truly passionate about something, most of the time you will enjoy the work as well as the reward. But without the work, there is no reward.
As anything involving sports often does, our time hitting golf balls turned into a friendly competition. My son has an impressive swing for a recently self taught newbie. I am terrible. I have tried several times throughout my life to get better at golf and I have come to accept that its just not my game. But I still enjoy it and occasionally I will hit a shot that makes me think maybe I got it. Typically, the next few shots are reminders that I clearly do not. Last night I hit a shot that might have been my best shot ever. It hit the back net and the computer read 218 yards. Before you professional golfers judge me, I am pretty sure the balls are designed to limit the distance and clearly have a chip in them so that the computers can score your shots. Anyway, it was a beauty. My son cheered me on but I could see the fire in his eyes. He had to beat it.
His next shot was one of the best golf shots I have ever witnessed in person. As we all stared at the computer waiting for the score to register, I thought I was toast. I thought for sure that drive was well over 220. My only hope was that hitting the net would max him out at 218. The the computer screen displayed 217. The fire and determination in his eyes was almost frightening. For the rest of the night, ball after ball, swing after swing – he would await confidently and the computer would say 217. He must of hit 217 15-20 times after my 218. And I never again broke 200.
Because I am a good father, I reminded him a few times throughout the night that I hit the ball further than he did. 217 vs 218. He may never live this one down. In fact, I may have to retire from golf as to not ruin my legacy. With all of the friendly ribbing that I gave him, I thought I recognized the teachable moment. As he was complaining about not being able to find the one spot in the net that is a foot further back than the rest, I interrupted him. And I told him that he is so focused on comparison and winning someone else’s game – that he is completely ignoring the 20 perfect shots that he hit. Comparison is ruining his entire experience, causing him to miss the good that he did because he is measuring it by the wrong standard. I tried to relate it back to our earlier conversation and told him that he had to find HIS passion and put in HIS work, for what God has called HIM to do. Not worrying about what this world is telling him is possible, or what this world is telling him he should do.
I thought I was dropping some wonderful father knowledge on the boy.
Then, this morning, I opened my bible and the first two verses that God gave me were James 2:17 and 2:18.
Yep. 217 vs 218.
“In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead.” James 2:17
When I read this, I felt confirmation that my messaging to my son on the way to our adventure was solid. This is the point I was trying to make to him. And maybe him hitting 217 over and over was God’s way of confirming and encouraging. I felt my own father superpowers in full force. And then I read James 2:18:
“But someone will say, ‘you have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.”
And right then I realized that my Heavenly Father was flexing his superpowers to teach me a lesson just the same. I have a tendency to be a task master. I have to get the to-do list done, because its the to-do list and that is what I am supposed to do. And this extends to all areas of my life. Because of this, sometimes I focus on the deeds, and not the faith behind the deeds. And while I was so adamant about my son matching his want with some work. And while I thought it was my manliness and prowess that contributed to me hitting 218, I think it is more likely that my Father used it to remind me to match my work with the want. I need to remember that I am not just here to check of tasks from the to do list. I am here to bring glory to God in every task I do. I forget this frequently.
While each of us has a lesson to learn, neither is more important than the other. Both must be learned and put in to action. We must have faith AND we must take action.
Dadvotionals 