In twenty-seven years of playing golf I have seen people who absolutely did not belong on a golf course. How do I know that? I had to follow them for the day. Someone once said that, "Golf is a good walk spoiled." Well, following people who have enough money to buy golf clubs and pay greens fees but know nothing of the game must be at the very heart of that statement.
That is the problem with golf. People can afford to play the game. But they refuse to invest the time to learn the game. They will not read about it, study it, practice it or even watch it. Then they go out to the golf course and spend the entire day playing eighteen holes. And if you're behind them, they never let you play through. Six hours later they finish having had fun with no idea of the ordeal they have inflicted on others who were forced to follow them.
Am I whining, am I crying? Yeah, maybe just a bit. But consider this. I used to play with a group of men, two of which were in their sixties and retired, who played every Tuesday morning teeing off at 7:00. The latest we finished was 10:30. We were usually done by 10:00. Were we good? Not really. But we knew what we were doing.
That's the difference between golfers and people who own clubs. And it's also the difference between Christians and people who are "religious." Knowledge. Many talk about life and how to live it without ever investing in the source of life, God. They never read the Bible (they seem to think that its truths are just understood by them) and never get to know Jesus the Christ. So they wander aimlessly in life.
"For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may have a walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." Colossians 1:9, 10 There is a difference. When Christ becomes the dwelling place, the Bible becomes the rule of life, and direction is a matter of intention, not accident.