Getting lost on the way to good

Several of us were sitting around a table discussing a Bible passage that was hard to understand. I said, “Let’s try to keep it simple,” and I used an analogy from golf.

Even if you don’t play golf or read the Bible, you will get this. You’ll even be able to say, “That is exactly like….” and be right. (Send that along in the comments.)

My golf analogy was this: When I was a very young boy, I often went with my father to the golf course. By the time I was four or five I could swing a club and hit a ball. A few years after that, I wanted to play golf, and my dad gave me my first golf lesson: “Swing the clubhead and let it do the work.”

Essentially that was the beginning and end of my golf instruction for a long, long time. I watched my dad and others play, and I learned about chipping and putting. My buddy Doug and I would chip golf balls around our yard, under trees, over branches, and — bravely or stupidly, in order to create pressure — over the house.

Doug and I both got good at golf and played together on the high school team, and we played in some tournaments, along with our other friends. Janet, a year older than us, was excellent.

My point is that I learned golf mostly by watching other good players, by making up games to try different things, and by competing. I didn’t take lessons and — best of all — YouTube had not been invented.

Fast forward to Korea, where I was stationed with the U. S. Army, and — this is a beautiful story for another article — found myself playing golf almost every day for about three months. My skill as a player blossomed and I got very, very good. Professional golf, clearly, was to be my career after the Army.

Life

At that point life interrupted in a dramatic and terrible — but in hindsight perfect — way and I stopped playing golf for several years. Eventually I found my way back to “the greatest game,” which I still loved, and discovered that it had not forgotten me.

And then I made a terrible mistake: I took a golf lesson.

Why? I wanted to accelerate my path back to my best. My intentions were good, but the road to bad golf is paved with good intentions. Or is that the road to hell?

The more I leaned on instruction to “find” my golf game, the more my game suffered. I was no longer playing golf, I was playing golf swing.

The devil is in the details

The phrase “the devil is in the details” was originally (you can look it up) “God is in the details.” That meant that paying attention to the details helped produce excellence.

Somewhere along the way the positive meaning and positive outcome shifted to a negative meaning with a negative outcome. “The devil is in the details” means that missing small things can lead to big problems and terrible results. It is as if the devil himself is hiding in those details in order to cause trouble.

While that sounds very much like something the devil would do, I have recently been interpreting “the devil is in the details” in a slightly different way. Ready?

When we believe we have to have every detail buttoned down exactly, we are very likely to lose our focus on the goal we are trying to accomplish. As a consequence of chasing perfection in every detail, we capture mediocrity.

I once played 9 holes of golf with a very good player who joined our twosome then tried to hustle me on the course. It wasn’t going to work because I saw what he was up to before we finished the first hole, and said as much to my friend. Sure enough, about two holes later the fellow asked me if I ever played golf for money.

I said, “Yes, but not against you.” He said, “Why not?” I replied, “Your move through the ball gives you away. There was a time when I could play you and would, but not now.”

On the 7th hole he said, “Were you good in high school?” I said I was, and he said, “Just swing like you did back then.” I got a vivid picture of that in my mind, swung, and hit the ball to within two feet of the hole from 150 yards. Why was I chasing details?

Theology

I’m a Jesus guy, and have been almost as long as I’ve played golf. What is my goal there? To live like Jesus: loving, listening, helping people, and trusting God. That is very much like, “Swing the clubhead, and let it do the work.”

But just like golf, because I’m the curious type, I wanted to dig deep and be the very best follower of Jesus I could be. I went to school, I read books, I talked to lots of people and listened to lots of lectures.

Can you see the parallels in that and golf? Even in theology, the devil can be down there in the details distracting me (or you) from the main thing.

The good news is, I know a lot about the golf swing. I also know a lot about the Bible and theology. Here is where those things come in handy — I can help people who get stuck with something in their golf game, and I can help those who get stuck while trying to understand some Bible teaching.

Finally…

All of this is directly applicable to two other endeavors in which we at Do Good U have experience and expertise: doing good and leadership.

We teach both of those to business leaders, coaches, and students. We understand the details, and we would love to help you or your company or your athletes or your school.

But in the meantime, don’t get lost on the way to good. Focus on the goal, and…

Do good. It’s in you!