When what’s right ends up being wrong
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of various kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Perseverance must complete its work so that you may become mature and complete, lacking nothing.” (James 1:2-5)
Sports can teach us many valuable lessons in life if we want. I played sports growing up and was a golf professional for three years in the 1970s. Sometimes we get caught up in the idea that if we do all the right things and execute the perfect golf swing, or the perfect baseball pitch, or whatever, we are guaranteed success. The problem is that sometimes this is literally true. The result matches the execution and the goal. However, success in sports as well as in life is not guaranteed.
Sports psychologist Bob Rotella says, “If you bring too much perfectionism to the golf course, you’ll likely leave with a high handicap and a lousy temperament, because your game will never meet your expectations.”*
You can make a perfect golf swing and walk into a divot or sand bunker, or make a great baseball pitch and the batter will hit a home run. The analogies are limitless.
So what do we do when the results are bad? We must accept that in sports, as in life, the results do not always end up the way we hope.
Jesus came as the savior of the world. He was a perfect man without sin. He did all the right things. The result was death on the cross because a short-term positive outcome was not God’s plan for the situation. He had a bigger picture in his mind.
You and I have to keep the bigger picture in mind when short-term results aren’t good. The Bible calls this perseverance. “Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12).
Ask God for the grace to accept bad outcomes, even if you have done all the right things.
Bob Rotella, “Golf is not a perfect game”Simon and Schuster, New York, NY 1995, p. 117
